Ford Motor Company took another step forward in the important and growing Indian automotive market on Tuesday 25th October, 2005, with the launch of the Ford Fiesta, an all-new sedan developed specifically for the Indian market by Ford's global engineering team. The debut event — with the first public showing of the new Fiesta — was hosted by Ford Chairman and CEO Bill Ford.

On his first visit to India, and in Delhi specifically for the debut of the new Fiesta, Mr. Ford noted, "As we accelerate our effort to meet the global challenges of our business, I have emphasised the importance of optimising our global footprint by investing in areas that are growing. India is right at the top of that list. This market is critical to our plans for building a Ford Motor Company for the 21st century."

He added, "Ford India has all the building blocks in place to move to the next level of growth. We have an outstanding dealer and supplier network, and a team of talented and enthusiastic employees. We also have a robust product portfolio, tailored to meet the unique requirements of this market. And today we are adding to our portfolio by introducing our fifth new product in six years — the Ford Fiesta."

Mr. Ford is also scheduled to meet with the Prime Minister of India and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu during his two day visit to the country. Additionally, he will be visiting Ford India's manufacturing facility in Maraimalai Nagar, near Chennai, and reviewing proposed business plans and further financial investments in India with the Ford India management team.

Speaking at the launch of Fiesta, Arvind Mathew, managing director and president of Ford India, said, "This launch comes at a critical time for us and it is a proud moment for all. Fiesta is an exciting new car, and we are now set to rapidly accelerate our growth in country. With the Fiesta, we have on offer a car with contemporary styling, superior driving dynamics, enhanced interior comfort and class leading fuel economy."

FIESTA: THE FIFTH NEW PRODUCT FOR INDIA SINCE 1999

When the Fiesta goes on sale in the fourth quarter of 2005, it will join the Ford Ikon, Mondeo, Endeavor and Fusion. The fifth new product for Ford in India since 1999, Fiesta has been developed with the disciplines of Ford’s Global Shared Technologies engineering approach, with a core team of Indian engineers working with product development teams from UK, Germany and Australia on the project.

The four-door Fiesta will be introduced with two available powertrains: the Duratec petrol 1.6-litre engine and the Duratorq 1.4-litre TDCi diesel. With this launch, Ford will introduce its proprietary Turbo Direct Common Rail injection (TDCi) technology in India. Ford has set new standards in turbo-diesel performance with the Duratorq TDCi engines. While being one of the smoothest and quietest diesels in its class, the technology is designed to deliver responsive acceleration, outstanding fuel economy, and reduced emissions.

Fiesta will be available for customer test drives by mid November 2005 at the company's dealership facilities in 79 cities across the country.

FIESTA BRINGS TOGETHER STYLING AND PERFORMANCE

The new Fiesta has a robustly well-proportioned stance that gives the car a sporty, purposeful and elegantly premium presence. The side profile of the car has been designed to give Indian customers the best of all functional attributes, including improved entry and exit, headroom, visibility and boot capacity.

The body side is a blend of powerful muscular shapes on the wheel arches, to more geometric angles on the body side features and front graphics. Fiesta is a car with great proportions and design sense. Contemporary surface development and attention to detail give it an aspirational identity and refinement that is of the highest quality.

Fiesta has been designed to provide stylish space and versatility, appealing to the sophisticated lifestyles of the young and young at heart. Taking full advantage of the global architecture, Fiesta has excellent interior package space. From its conception Fiesta was designed from the inside out, and the result is more interior space than competitive sedans in the segment. Coupled with its four-door exterior, this design gives the agility and maneuverability required in crowded city driving, but with class leading interior space.

Strong Engines are at the Heart of Driving Performance

The 1.6-litre Duratec engine in Fiesta is a contemporary powertrain, contributing to Fiesta’s fun to drive flavour and enhanced fuel economy through a combination of advanced combustion technology, minimum weight, low internal friction and new levels of refinement.

The available 1.4-litre Duratorq TDCi diesel engine is a state of the art modern diesel with a turbocharger and electronically controlled direct injection, offering excellent torque output, remarkable fuel economy and notably low emissions.

Fiesta will continue to build Ford's brand reputation for outstanding driving dynamics. It shares the same advanced chassis engineering that has made many Ford products the class leaders for vehicle dynamics. Fiesta builds upon this outstanding pedigree of vehicle dynamics to reward the discerning driver and provide a comfortable driving experience for the full range of Indian driving conditions.

Fiesta's handling provides exceptional confidence feel through high levels of stability, together with predictability, from normal driving conditions and to the most demanding limits. Fiesta is safe and easy to drive for a novice driver and provides a rewarding drive for an enthusiast.

In developing the new Fiesta, test vehicles were driven over 700,000 kilometres on testing surfaces at various global facilities in nine countries — India, Korea, Australia, Belgium, Germany, UK, Spain, Sweden and Japan.

Safety and Impact Protection

Fiesta has been designed using advanced computer modelling to develop a safety structure that combines energy absorbing crash zones with a rigid survival space for the occupants. Body shell load paths have been optimised for maximum deformation outside the passenger compartment in front, rear and side impacts, thus reducing the severity of the crash pulse transmitted to the occupants. This primary protection is backed up by a number of supplementary restraint systems and a range of improved interior features designed to reduce injuries even further.

Performance Necessary for the Demanding Indian Market

For the Indian market, Fiesta benefits from enhanced requirement standards deployed as part of a Ford global practice for monsoon regions. Extensive water wading tests were successfully conducted to develop Fiesta as a vehicle capable of wading through Indian monsoon flooding, handling bow waves, while not allowing ingress of water into the body compartment and other water sensitive systems.

Additionally, with market demands in mind, Ford Fiesta features an exceptional air conditioning system which allows the vehicle to deliver class-leading levels of air conditioning performance and comfort with both diesel and petrol powertrains. The system has been developed to ensure extremely rapid cool down of the passenger compartment — this cooling capacity means that under normal Indian operating conditions the interior can be maintained at a very comfortable temperature with lower fan speeds, which significantly reduces interior noise level and improves occupant comfort/communication and prevents fatigue.

ABOUT FORD INDIA

Established in 1995, Ford India is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Ford India manufactures and distributes cars made at its modern integrated manufacturing facility, at Maraimalai Nagar, near Chennai. With over 1,800 employees, the company's present models include the Ikon, Fusion, Endeavour and Mondeo. Ford India is in its ninth year of operations in the country.

In 2004, Ford India sold 27,064 vehicles.

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