Alan Mulally, President and CEO of Ford Motor Company kisses the newly launched EcoSport vehicle, in New Delhi. Ford Motor Co on Wednesday launched the EcoSport, its new global compact sports utility vehicle, and said it will invest $142 million in the company's Chennai plant in south India to manufacture the model for the domestic and export markets. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Even as the rumour mills are busy speculating about his retirement, 66-year old CEO of Ford Motor Corporation, Alan Mulally came calling in India to unveil a compact sports utility vehicle EcoSport on Wednesday. Excerpts from an interview with
HT.
On India’s
potentialThere is a slowdown in the Asia Pacific market that grew so fast last year but even then it is sustainable and poised to grow further. Our largest growth markets would be in Asia Pacific and India would be one the highest growth markets in the world.
On emerging markets as the key growth areasFor us, currently the US and North America is growing, so is Asia Pacific, China and Africa, even as Europe is struggling with debt crisis.
Our estimate is that by the end of this decade, emerging markets would account for a third of our global sales.
On changing preference for cars
The pillar of our global strategy is based on the fact that globally consumer preference has coalesced towards fuel economical cars. Hence the development of cars such as EcoSport that has a small 1 litre engine but even then it gives a performance like that of a bigger engine without compromising on the fuel economy.