Ford shuts down its manufacturing plants in India, will sell only imported vehicles

The Ford Motor Co will close down its two manufacturing plants in India. The company issued a statement saying, “Ford India will cease manufacturing vehicles for sale in India immediately; manufacturing of vehicles for export will wind down at Sanand vehicle assembly plant by Q4 2021, and Chennai engine and vehicle assembly plants by Q2 2022.” The company will rely on imports for the sale of its vehicles in the country.

In its Chennai and Sanand plant, Ford had invested $2.5 billion. The plants manufactured vehicles such as EcoSport, Figo and Aspire. In India, the company will now rely on imports and sell vehicles like Mustang. In a year, the company has installed a manufacturing capacity of 6,10,000 engines and 4,40,000 vehicles. Figo, Aspire, and EcoSport are some of the models that it exported to around 70 markets in the world.

Earlier, General Motors had shut its plants in India, which makes Ford the second American company to do so.

In January 2021, Ford Motor Co and Mahindra & Mahindra decided to continue their operation in India independently, as they dropped the joint venture they had announced earlier. This joint venture was supposed to sell both – Mahindra and Ford – cars in the high-growth emerging markets. It was also planned to acquire FMC’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Ford India Pvt Ltd (FIPL), and its automotive business. Ford India Pvt Ltd has been engaged in the automotive business in India since 1995. The business that was slated for the acquisition included manufacturing plants of Ford India at Chennai and Sanand. However, both the powertrain facility in Sanand and the powertrain division of FIPL were not part of the plan.

General Motors in 2017, had announced that it would stop selling vehicles in India as it was struggling to make a fortune even after over two decades.