16 years after it first began producing cars and engines, the Chennai manufacturing plant of Ford India today announced the roll-out of its 1 millionth car and engine. The one millionth car to be manufactured by Ford India at their Chennai plant is EcoSport in Diamond White colour.
Built at an investment of $1 billion back in 1999, Ford India Chennai plant has the capacity to produce up to 200,000 vehicles and 340,000 engines a year. The plant today produces Ford’s globally-renowned nameplates like Ford EcoSport, Ford Fiesta and Ford Endeavour.
The new Ford EcoSport.Speaking about the achievement Balasundaram Radhakrishnan, executive director – manufacturing at Ford Chennai Vehicle Assembly & Engine Plant, said, “Chennai is from where we started our make in India journey. Apart from being a global manufacturing hub for Ford, the facility has set new benchmarks in adopting processes that not only ensure global quality but significantly reduce our carbon footprint.”
The facility is built inside Ford India’s 350 acre site in Maraimalai Nagar, about 45 km from Chennai. Though the production of cars started in 1999, production of engines started only in 2008, at the state of the art single-flexible production line, configured to build both petrol and diesel engines simultaneously.
Apart from Chennai plant, Ford India also has another manufacturing plant at Sanand, Gujarat. This one was in augurated earlier this year in March. From the Ford Sanand plant, new cars like the Figo and Figo Aspire are being produced. The cars manufactured in India, are also being exported to as many as 40 markets across the globe. Ford plans to make India a global export hub in the coming years.
The next car Ford India plans to launch, is the new Endeavour.
