Ford Figo launching in India by March

Why a subcompact car? The statistics show that almost three quarters of all cars currently sold in India are in the subcompact category, which means they measure less than 4000mm in length.

The biggest player in the market is Suzuki which has dominated the Indian market for the last few years with cars such as the Alto, Swift, Ritz and A-Star.

The Indian car market is expected to be about twice the size of the Australian one by the end of 2010, however unlike the Australian market Ford currently only has about a 2 percent market share having sold 24,186 cars during April-January.

That may all change with the launch of the Figo, which we first saw in September last year. The tiny vehicle will be built for the Indian market at Ford's $500 million facility in the southern city of Chennai.

As part of the process to gain more market share with the Figo, Ford India opened 28 more dealerships on Tuesday, now totalling 164 dealerships across 97 cities.

Nonetheless the race is on with General Motors having already launched the Beat in India, while the Volkswagen Polo will go on sale in June and Toyota will launch the Etios towards the end of the year.