Despite Ford being pressured for importing vehicles from plants outside the U.S., the automaker is still pushing through with it. The SUV segment has been growing more than expected. Due to this, Ford is bringing the EcoSport to the U.S. market as an addition to its North American lineup from India.
Adding One More To The Lineup
According to Forbes, the growth in the U.S. auto market this year has been quite slow except for the SUV and sub segments. In fact, there is a 36.6 percent growth in the subcompact segment from the combined sales of the five best selling brands Jeep, Subaru, Honda, Chevrolet and Buick. Given the fact that the EcoSport has been doing really well in other foreign markets, Ford is bringing it to the U.S. market, hoping that it will be able to improve the sales and profitability of the automaker.
From India To US
In a report from Wall Street Journal, a Ford spokesman stated that the EcoSport will be exported from the automaker's plant near the southern Indian city of Channai. This will start in the late 2017 and the Ford EcoSport will be available in the U.S. market early in 2018. Accordingly, Ford's Indian factories have been in operation for more than 20 years but this will be the first time the automaker will sell vehicles that originated from India.
Justifying The Move
Reports stated that this action from the American automaker is a result of Ford's difficulty in assembling certain cars in American soil. Apparently, Ford is not the only automaker with this problem. In fact, other automakers such as General Motors and Fiat Chrysler have also been having difficulties resulting to job-cutting and production stoppage for the former and the latter respectively. Regardless of the reasons for the import, it will be interesting to see how the Ford EcoSport will perform in comparison to the other subcompacts that are already in the U.S. market.
