Why Has Ford Abandoned Plans To Manufacture EV’s In India?

First things first, let us focus on facts and facts alone. Ford isn’t just any car name or carmaker; it’s an exceptional identity that has an exquisite place in the firmament of globally renowned car brands.

It’s a revered creation, truth be told.

Over the course of more than the last three decades, Ford has quite simply dazzled the Indian car market by offering a unique array of products. With signature creations such as the Ford Fiesta, Ford Ikon, Ford Escort and as seen in the last ten years, Ford Endeavour, the popular and robust American offering, Ford has graced the Indian roads with a sense of elan.

But as it often happens with many a noted car brand, there’s always a downslide; a period of time where things just don’t go according to plan. Therefore, when around Q4 in 2021, it was announced that Ford India was shutting operations having faced a loss of around 2 Billion (USD), there were tense nerves and a sense of sorrow.

Along with brands like Harley Davidson and General Motors, Ford too, would join the long list of the American bandwagon to shut shop in India and return back, which wasn’t the ideal situation particularly from a fan perspective.

And just when you thought that that was all; in comes another piece of news that suggests that there is more.

As per a brand new media statement issued in the public domain, it now appears that Ford will not be manufacturing the Electric vehicles in India, which featured earlier in its plans for this part of the sub-continent.

The said media statement suggested that the call was taken after long and ‘careful’ review.

So there we go then: any chances whatsoever of seeing Ford jumping into the electric car space are hereby rendered invalid. That is not going to happen.

That being told, here’s what a news report from the revered Indian Express had to say on the developing story:

The statement said the company had decided to no longer pursue EV manufacturing for exports from any of the Indian plants. “We remain grateful to the Government for approving our proposal under the Production-Linked Incentives and for being supportive while we continued our exploration,” said the statement.

After the American car manufacturer had announced their decision to stop operations in India in September 2021, the company said it was working on the business restructuring and continued to explore possible alternatives for its manufacturing facilities, especially the production-linked incentives scheme to utilise one of the plants as a potential EV manufacturing base.

Ford India’s previously-announced business restructuring continues as planned, including exploring other alternatives for our manufacturing facilities. We continue to work closely with unions and other stakeholders to deliver an equitable and balanced plan to mitigate the impacts of restructuring.

Moving on, it ought to be said that what is taking shape at Ford with regards to the manufacturing of electric vehicles isn’t quite the scenario with the other car brands, especially the indigenous car makers of India, such as Tata Motors.

As a matter of fact, Tata Motors, one of the most widely respected and successful carmakers from India have plans to launch no fewer than 10 new EV cars across different segments. That is, of course, in addition to their widely-received EV called Nexon that is currently a hot property on the Indian roads.

Similarly, the likes of Maruti too are jumping in the highly fertile EV space in India with some exciting plans for the course of the future.