According to reports, engineers from Ford of India visited crash testing facilities in the United States last month to help develop a test facility in India that meets US safety standards.
The engineers were seen at a crash test facility in New York, studying and observing US crash research methods in order to assist in the construction of a similar facility on Indian soil.
While the idea of importing cars from India for the US market is currently speculative, a report released by the Associated Press on Friday quoted Ford US sales analyst George Pipas as saying that compacts and subcompacts are the immediate future of the American auto industry. Ford of India is well known for their small cars, including the Fiesta, which will be imported in the next few years, and the Ikon, the most fuel efficient vehicle in the Indian market.
The size of this project makes speculating on an import date difficult, but from Pipas' repeatedly mentioned the year 2013 as a possible peak for the compact and subcompact markets in the US. Pipas also mentioned that multiple cars based on the international Ford Focus platform would be in the United States by 2012.
Representatives of Ford of North America were unavailable as of this writing.
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