Ford Pips Hyundai To Emerge As The Top Car Exporter From India

Ford registered a commendable 262 per cent growth in exports in December 2016 compared to 2015’s December.

In the wake of slow growth rate in Indian market, the American automaker was able to offset dipping sales in the domestic market with an exceptional performance in exports for December 2016. And in due course, it toppled Hyundai to become the no. 1 car exporter from India. Nissan, Maruti Suzuki and Volkswagen hold the respective three spots after Hyundai.

Last year in December, Ford exported 17,904 units as against 4,941 units in last month of 2015, thereby registering a healthy growth of 262.36 per cent. The leap in export figures can be largely credited to European exports it started in mid-2016. Contrarily, the Korean automaker saw a dip of 23.19 per cent as it managed to ship 17,107 units in December last year as compared to 22,273 units same time the year before.

Excited by the hike in exports, Anurag Mehrotra, executive director - Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford India, said, “Ford is proud to be making in India, for India and the world. We continue to stay committed to position India as a centre of manufacturing excellence with products exported to more than 50 markets across the globe, including parts of ASEAN, Europe, Middle-East and Africa among others.”

Among the Ford cars making it big overseas are the Figo hatch and the Aspire compact sedan, besides the EcoSport compact SUV. The hatch and sedan’s combine export figures read 11,630 units for December last year, while they were 1751 in December 2015. The compact SUV continued its strong export demand with 6274 units being shipped last month, ahead of Hyundai Creta’s 4845 units.