Honda City rival Ford B500 plans shelved

Ford India’s new products have been performing far less than the original expectations thereby accumulating losses. The second plant in Sanand came up to support the American automaker’s big future plans but the lackluster sales have warranted a review in the strategy.

Economic Times reports that Ford’s plans to locally design and develop an all new compact platform in India for emerging markets have been shelved as the company is looking to redirect the resources in strengthening its current operations in the country.

The new Figo and Figo Aspire have been struggling to meet the internal sales expectations. The company is said to have undertaken the largest ever brand transformation campaign in the Indian automotive industry.

Codenamed as B500, the sedan based on the said platform was supposed to be a Honda City rival (Fiesta replacement). The platform was supposed to spawn more top-hats in the future. Instead of spending time and money on this platform, Ford India has decided to strengthen its marketing and after-sales service operations in a bid to extract more volume from its existing portfolio.

It remains to be seen whether the task of developing the B500 will be assigned to a different subsidiary (like Ford Brazil) or scrapped altogether.

This article first appeared on Rushlane.com