Ford India has been struggling to post good sales figures and an exit seems quite possible
Ford could exit India in the near future as it is currently on the lookout for buyers for its 2 manufacturing facilities.
Located at Maraimalai Nagar (near Chennai, Tamil Nadu) and Sanand (Gujarat) its manufacturing facilities can produce 4.40 lakh cars and 6.10 lakh engines (combined) per annum.
It has come to light that Ford has been in talks with various carmakers for both contract manufacturing and/or sale of its factories.
Only few days ago, the automaker was said to be holding discussions with French car firm Citroen and now, it turns out, Ford is speaking with Ola which could buy the either 1 or both factories to build electric cars.
Ola is already building the largest 2-wheeler manufacturing facility in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu and was recently linked with an entry into the fledgling electric passenger car segment.
Ford India’s spokesman did not comment on the prospect directly, but did say the company will continue to assess its capital allocations in India and that it expects “to have an answer in the second half of this year.”
The carmaker has been facing difficulty ever since talks with Mahindra fell through. Ford tried to find a partner to run its Indian operations and approached MG, Great Wall and Changan Automobile.
While discussions with MG Motor India led to nowhere, Changan and Great Wall had dropped their plans to enter India due to the geo-political tensions at the Indo-China border.