Ford Planning a 5k Crore Investment in R&D Unit of Chennai

Ford India is planning to invest close to 5000 crore in the R&D unit at their Chennai based manufacturing facility. It will be another pillar in the American manufacturer's expansion strategy in India, following the billion dollar investment in the Sanand's engine manufacturing plant in Gujarat.

This step is highly influenced by the ‘Make in India’ campaign of the current Government and as Ford’s Global CEO Mark Fields has made positive comments regarding this initiative. Fields is very interested in the nation's potential to grow as an industrial hub.

Though, there is no word from the manufacturer as for now, but speculations are that the Chennai plant will be developed into one of the largest R&D hub of the Asia-Pacific region. It will not only serve India but the expertise of its engineers and designers will also be implemented to Ford’s foreign projects. This will strongly project the company in front of big players like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai that already have their R&D centres.

While currently, the latest development from Ford is the Figo Aspire that is coming in a couple of Months. The car is packed with some first-in-class features and will push the benchmark to new heights.

There are also rumors that Ford will be bringing an all new car by 2018, in the Honda City territory. The car will be based upon the current Fiesta and will also serve as a platform to Ford’s MPV segment out here.