Ford Motor Co. will increase its presence in the diesel segment of India's fast-growing passenger vehicle market, but stay conservative in its new launches
High fuel prices and new launches are encouraging a shift to diesel, with analysts forecasting diesel's share of the Indian passenger vehicle market at 35 percent by 2010 from 30 percent.
Endeavour is an all-diesel range and more than 75 percent of sales of the Ford Fiesta are also in diesel, McCormack said. The Fiesta makes up nearly 70 percent of Ford's sales in India.
Ford will launch a diesel variant of its Fusion car in the third quarter of the year, and look at other options, he said.
"We are looking at new segments that are growing and that we can compete in with existing products or products that we can develop, like the Fiesta
Ford has sold about 7,000 units of the Endeavour since its launch in 2003 and has 38 percent of the about 15,000 units a year market for premium SUVs