Ford will hike the prices of its Figo compact car from the first of June citing rising raw material costs. We beg to think differently and every manufacturer would introduce their car with a lower price tag and hike it later. Figo has been selling well for Ford and it currently sells for Rs 3.5 and 4.48 Ex-Delhi for the base models of petrol and diesel respectively.
“We can’t defy gravity for ever. The general industry cost is rising, steel prices are up, components are costlier and there has also been an increase in transport cost,” Ford India Executive Director (Marketing, Sales and Services) Nigel Wark told. The price rise is confirmed from the first of June and although the jump is not exactly known, the company officials have hinted that it will be maximum of 2% meaning a maximum increase of Rs 7000 to Rs 10,000 across the range.”We are still fine tuning the price. It will, however, not be a major hike and well below two per cent,” Wark said.
Ford has received 20,000 bookings for its Figo since it was launched more than two months ago and the waiting period currently stretches to over a month. “The success of the car has been stupendous. A brand new product with a brand new factory is always challenging but we are already past the 20,000 units mark in booking and our effort will be to continue the momentum in the months to come,” Wark said.
To satisfy waiting customers, Ford will add a second shift to their plant from July. Ford will hire 700 more employees including shop floor staff and engineers by June to deal with the volume rise. The second shift will increase production of the Figo which is currently just 6000 units per month. “We have already reduced the waiting period for the car from six weeks to four weeks and effort continues to make the waiting period come down further,” Wark said. He added that work is on to start exporting the car to South Africa and some of the increase in the output at the Chennai plant will be for that purpose also.
