In the list of biggest gainers of 2013, American giant Ford clearly ranks ahead of its rivals as the compact Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), EcoSport, took the Indian car market by storm. This car has generated tremendous buzz ever since it was unveiled and soon after its launch, it amassed 30000 bookings in 17 days. Soon, EcoSport became the best-selling car in the segment outpacing demand of its fiercest rival, Renault Duster. At present, the compact SUV is still going strong in the Indian car market and has a waiting period that stretches from four to eight months, depending on the trim level.
One of the main reasons attributed behind the success of Ford EcoSport in India is its aggressive price tag, owing to which the car found many takers in India. With the EcoSport, Ford perfectly mastered the art of pricing it vehicle according to market conditions. Before EcoSport, the compact SUV of Renault, was doing exceptionally well in the Indian car market as it was raking good sales. However, after the introduction of Ford EcoSport, the demand for Duster was drastically impacted. The difference in prices between both vehicles worked in favour of EcoSport. At the time of launch, Ford EcoSport was placed at Rs. 5.59 lakh for base variant whereas the top-specification trim was offered at Rs. 8.99 lakh (ex-showroom). While on the other hand, the range of Renault Duster started from Rs. 7.99 lakh, which further goes up till Rs. 12.18 lakh.
As reported, Ford chose to tread carefully with EcoSport as it decided to locally manufacture the car in India in order to price it competitively. To do so, the company invested 142 million dollars to produce EcoSport at its manufacturing facility in Chennai. It must be noted that Chennai facility of the company is among five plants in the world globally where EcoSport is manufactured.
After the compact SUV of Ford made significant inroads in the Indian car market, the company announced a price hike in which the prices of each and every variant were raised by Rs. 20000 to Rs. 25000. With regards to this, a company official, said, “we have absorbed increases in costs over the past period, the situation is such that we now need to revise the prices of our vehicles." Even after raising prices of Ford EcoSport, the demand for the compact SUV remained high as it still commanded large bookings. The price of EcoSport is still considerably less on comparing it with other models like Nissan Terrano, Renault Duster and Mahindra Quanto.
It must be mentioned that through EcoSport, Ford has set an example of how to price products aggressively in a market like India. The end result of the aggressive price tag was that the car became a runaway success for the company in India, which completely changed the scenario in the compact SUV segment.
