Ford rules out hike in car prices, may launch new versions

October 22: Ford India Ltd has said it was studying the market for launching new versions of its mid-size car `Ikon' in the country, but r...

October 22: Ford India Ltd has said it was studying the market for launching new versions of its mid-size car `Ikon’ in the country, but ruled out any immediate hike in car prices.

"Studies are constantly going on for launching other versions of the `Ikon’. If there exists such a demand, we will introduce new models," Ford India General Manager (sales) Vinay Piparsania told PTI.

Ford is, at present, selling five versions of `Ikon’ namley `CLXi’ (petrol), `EXi’, 1.6 ZXi (diesel) and the recently launched `SXi’, being sold in a limited edition of 1,000 units.

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"We are not planning to increase the prices of the `Ikon’ car in the near future," Piparsania said when asked whether Ford would hike car prices in view of fall in the exchange rate of the rupee and increasing global steel prices.

The company was working on various aspects to stabilise the prices of the `Ikon’ car like undertaking value engineering methods, he said and added that the Ikon currently has an indigenisation level of 75 per cent.

Earlier, this month, Ford had hiked the price of its 1.3 `EXi’ version of the Ikon by Rs 13,979 to Rs 4.85 lakhs.

"This was only a price positioning drive as the car was priced lower during the time of its launch," Piparsania said.