What do you do when you want to spread the message of peace all over the country? Why, you drive through it, of course!

Dilpreet Singh Bindra, director of catering sales at the Taj Palace Delhi, drove across India in a 13,000-km journey in his Ford Fusion, connecting with Taj employees and the people of India in the spirit of unity and harmony. The journey ended at the Taj hotel in Mumbai, where the devastating terrorist attacks in November 2008 occurred.

And why the Ford, we asked Bindra. “I bought my Ford Fusion in 2008 and I just love it. I have a sense of safety and security when I’m behind the wheel of a Ford,” he replied. Hear, hear! Here’s to peace and to Ford!

Read more about Bindra’s journey here.

The Ford Figo, which we unveiled last month, garnered much attention in India and around the world. From the common man to the world’s leading news publications — everyone is talking about it. For this fabulous new car, we have a fabulous factory — our rejuvenated integrated manufacturing plant in Maraimalai Nagar, Chennai.

The plant has undergone a comprehensive transformation in the past 21 months. This makeover is part of a $500 million investment, and has shaped the factory into an expanded and state-of-the-art automobile manufacturing facility. And why not? After all, the plant is readying for volume production of the Ford Figo. What’s more, the new facility is poised to become a strategic production hub for the Ford Motor Company.

The plant was originally set up in 1999 with a manufacturing capacity of 100,000 vehicles a year.  Post-expansion, the capacity has doubled to 200,000 units. The manufacturing footprint will also house a new engine manufacturing facility to make Ford India a production hub for low-displacement engines, coming up to an installed capacity 250,000 units, due next year. We have enlarged the plant complex from 250 to 353 acres, with 60 percent of built-up area. The remaining acreage comprises lawns and a green belt.

Here’s what else has changed at our plant:

• We move from manual assembly to 30 percent automated assembly, thanks to a flexible body shop that can produce different types of car bodies on one line
• There’s a new paint line featuring the high-tech three-wet high-solids finishing process
• We now have a dedicated testing facility with a 3.2-kilometre quality testing circuit, a squeak-and-rattle testing track for finished vehicles and dynamic water wading test-bed
• New stamping press line with automated crossbar technology
• Extension of the trim and chassis assembly line for flexible assembly of different models.
• New lean manufacturing techniques that are enabled by multiple computer systems, especially useful for build-to-order production of parts and components from the adjacent 35-acre supplier park.

Over the next few posts, we will take you through some of the best features of our plant. Stay tuned!

President and CEO Alan Mulally thrilled us when he said, “When you walk into a Ford showroom, you will be able to get every vehicle from there you can dream of,” at the Chennai town hall. “We are going to be best-in-class for every vehicle we make,” he added as 5000 of us from Ford operations in India hung on to every word. And the loud applause resonated with his inspiring assertion, “We are creating a viable Ford together.”

We hope you enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed hearing Mr. Mulally speak!

Alan Mulally and the Ford Figo got a hearty welcome from more than 5,000 Ford employees at our town hall meeting in Chennai last week. We think this was a record audience for a Mulally town hall meeting anywhere in the world!

“Ford India rocks!” were Mr Mulally’s first words, and we responded with thunderous applause and shouts of approval.

Recounting the Ford Figo unveiling to the press a day earlier, Mr Mulally said, “What we shared with the press was that we were developing a new small car and we’re doing it right here in India as part of the Ford team… So what were we really announcing yesterday? That Ford of India was leading the entire Ford Motor Company to bring the latest new Ford product.”

The who’s who of Ford India was at the town hall — Michael Boneham, Ford India president and managing director, John Parker, executive vice president, Ford Motor Company Asia Pacific and Africa, and Joginder Singh, executive director, Global Business Services (GBS).

Mr Boneham told us that Figo will “give us muscle in the heart of the Indian market.” On the other hand, Mr Parker confessed having a tough time controlling his emotions and said the Figo was a dream come true. “I struggled all the years I was here in India to get into this area of the market so this is the culmination of 12 years of dreams for myself as well as for all of you.”

Mr Mulally inspired us when he shared our founder’s dream. “Henry Ford’s vision was that the Ford Motor Company would operate in every country in which they sold vehicles,”  he said. “Because his dream was that not only would you get the finest vehicles in the world but you’d get a chance to work for the Ford Motor Company at the same time.”

We all got a chance to see the newest member of the Ford family at the end of the meeting. As the covers came off the Figo, Mr Mulally said, “Take a deep breath and you’ve just got to enjoy this. This is a very special moment. We’re busy, we’re working hard and we’re going to go right back to work and work hard again, but just take a deep breath and just appreciate everything you have done to get to the place where we’re launching for the world the finest small car.”

Yes — the finest small car — that’s what the Figo will be!

The Figo reveal has created ripples in the Indian auto industry and the news media. We bring you snippets from the press coverage.

Economic Times leads the way with the headline “India will build Ford’s Figo”, while The Hindu Business Line declares that “Everything about it [Figo] says it is a Ford”. Mint features an in-depth interview with president and CEO Alan Mulally.

Indian news channels covered the unveiling event and interviewed Mr. Mulally. NDTV interviewed Mr. Mulally; so did CNBC TV 18.  Mr. Mulally spoke about the small car strategy, his plans for India and Ford being the right vehicle for the Indian customer. ET Now has an on-ground interview with Mr. Mulally on Ford’s multiple global platforms and the role of small cars in our family of vehicles.

The Figo also made it to the international press, with Business Week dubbing the Figo a small car “made in – and for – India”. We couldn’t agree more.

- By the Ford Figo team

Here are the best moments of our unveiling event yesterday. Watch the Ford Figo drive out for the first time and what president and CEO Alan Mulally had to say about Ford and the new car.

What do you think of the Figo? Let us know.

It’s anything but small- it’s substantial. It’s a Ford. And it’s finally revealed!

Say hello to the newest member of the Ford carline in India– the Ford Figo!

Figo is colloquial Italian for “cool”, and our new car personifies the vibrant spirit and youthful character of its name, plus the quality and substance car buyers expect from a Ford.

Our president and CEO Alan Mulally introduced Figo to the foreign and Indian media at a press conference in Delhi a short while ago. It was a fascinating sneak peek at our future in India.

“We know the high importance Indian consumers place on value for money. We know you want quality, fuel efficiency, technology, and safety. And Ford is going to give it to you,” Mr. Mulally said at the conference.

We like Figo’s kinetic design, which shares key elements with the Focus, Mondeo and Fiesta.  Its contemporary touches include expressive headlamps and grille, and sculpted bonnet. Also check out a host of other design details, such as:

• Chiseled front fenders and strong shoulders
• ‘Comet tail’ undercut in the door
• Chamfered window shape at the rear
• Light-catching sculpting in the lower bodyside
• Sporty integrated spoiler
• Contemporary singular side window graphic, a strong graphic via the use of a blacked-out centre pillar

Generous proportions are evident in the Figo design. And being a Ford, we ensured the Figo has a solid stance with a spacious interior.  The car’s profile and bold graphic large side window shape strongly hint at the comfort and spaciousness of the car.

We’ve made the Figo nimble and agile, another core Ford characteristic. The pronounced wheel arches signal both agility and solidity, and the body shape has minimal overhang with a wheels-at-the-corners look.

Our team has leveraged Ford’s small-car platform architecture to create the Figo. It shares underlying technology with the Ford Fiesta, already familiar to Indian drivers.

We have designed the Figo for driving on congested city roads, fully geared to take on the competition in India’s small car segment. As Michael Boneham, president and managing director, Ford India, said at the conference: “We’re confident that the new Ford Figo will be extremely attractive to Indian car buyers. It’s going to be very competitive with the current market leaders and offer a tremendous value story for our consumers.”

The car will be produced at our Chennai plant, which has undergone a $500 million transformation to become a regional centre of excellence for Ford small car production.  The Figo will be exported to international markets as well. Volume production is scheduled to begin in early 2010.

Keep track of our blog for more information about the car and Ford in India. Meanwhile, we leave you with first glimpses of the car. Enjoy the pictures, and do let us know what you think of Figo.

-By the Ford Figo Team