Several semi-finished units of the Ford Ranger pickup have been spotted in Coimbatore and this time their point of origin has come to light.
The partly assembled pickup trucks emerge from the factory of Jayem Automotives situated in the southern industrial town and are sent to Chennai on truck beds.
It looks like the automotive R&D company has struck a deal with Ford to assemble the right-hand drive (RHD) double-cab variants of the Ranger pickup truck at their facility.
Jayem Automotives might be assembling the CKD kits of the Ranger (which shares its platform with the Endeavour) imported from Thailand from where kits for the Indian Endeavour come as well.
After partially assembling the pickup, the firm is likely sending them off to the American carmaker’s plant near Chennai where they get finished and exported overseas to markets such as Sri Lanka, South Africa, among others.
Ford is most likely using Jayem Automotives’ expertise to further strengthen its export operations from India and also take some pressure off of its Thailand facility.
Although the onus is currently on exports, the possibility of the Ranger getting launched in the domestic market cannot be ruled out as of yet since it is getting assembled here.
Furthermore, this can be seen as Jayem Automotives’ second innings with regard to it becoming a vehicle manufacturer as its previous joint venture with Tata (JT Special Vehicles Private Limited under which Tiago JTP and Tigor JTP were developed) was short lived.
More details about the Jayem Automotives-Ford India collaboration are expected to come out in the coming weeks.
Ford Ranger Spotted
- Ford Ranger has been spotted in Coimbatore once again
- The pickup truck is getting assembled at Jayem Automotives’ facility
- Semi-finished units are then sent to Ford’s plant near Chennai
Source – RushLane.com