Ford has been constantly in talks with various manufacturers for both contract manufacturing and/or sale of it’s Indian plants, the latest of which being Ola, which could use ford’s plants for the purpose of manufacturing Electric Cars.
Ford is likely to exit India operations and soon US based Automaker may take a call on it’s Maraimalainagar and Sanand Factories. Commenting on this, Ford India’s spokesperson termed this as speculative by saying “We would not like to comment on speculations. We continue to assess our capital allocations in India and expect to have an answer in the second half of this year.”
Commenting on the reason behind Ford’s slow process of contract manufacturing, a source added, “talks were at an advanced level with Mahindra & Mahindra” and was looking at “cross badging and new product alliance plans with the Indian partner would take care of Ford India’s 400000 units per annum capacity at Maraimalainagar and Sanand”.
After the dissolvement of Ford-Mahindra JV, Ford rebegan approaching other Manufacturers including MG, Changan and Great Wall Motors. However, Changan and Great Wall Motors showed minimal interest due to geo-political disputes at the Indo-China Border. “The uncertainty in the long-term growth prospects of the auto industry has resulted in serious challenges for Ford, including capacity utlization” another source added.
Ford currently manufactures Cars and Engines at it’s two factories (Chennai and Gujarat). The Chennai plant holds the capacity of producing over 2 lakh cars and 3.5 lakh engines whereas the Gujarat plant can manufacture 2.4 lakh cars and assemble 2.7 lakh engines. However, the struggling US Automaker sold less than 2800 Cars in June 2021.
SOURCE-TOI (Newspaper)