Chennai, May 13 Ford India plans to double the output from its diesel engine plant enabling it to reach the full capacity of 60,000 units a year.
The plant, which started production last month, will give Ford India a 20 per cent cost saving and increase local content in the Fiesta to 85 per cent from 80 per cent and in the Fusion to 60 per cent from 55 per cent, according to its Managing Director, Mr Michael Boneham.
The engine plant, which makes duratorq diesel engines for Ford�s Fiesta and Fusion, will start a second shift soon.
It now makes about 100 engines a day on a single shift basis and will start a second shift doubling its daily output. This would make Ford utilise the full capacity of 60,000 units per year.
Addressing the media at the engine plant, , Mr Boneham, said the plant would enable the company to respond quickly to market preference for diesel/petrol options, efficient implementation of process improvements and improve turnaround time.
The company now imports diesel engines from Ford Europe and sources Rocam and Sigma petrol engines from Avtec in Indore. During the next phase of expansion, the current assembly operations will be integrated with flexible engine manufacturing facility, he said.
�This engine facility will help position Ford India as a strategic manufacturing hub for low displacement power train engines with our Asia Pacific and Africa region,� he said.
In addition to supporting vehicle production for the domestic market, the company will also export engines. It may be recalled that Ford India announced a capex of $500 million in January for setting up the engine assembly plant and doubling car manufacturing to two lakh units per year.
For the diesel engine assembly plant the company has developed 25 new suppliers, which constitutes about 50 per cent of the local content. About 25 items including consumables and components such as piston, rings, gaskets and springs have been localised. At present the company imports critical components like crankshaft, camshaft, cylinder block, cylinder head and connecting rod and machines the blocks. Eventually it will look at options to source crankshaft, cylinder head and block, he said.
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