Ford India badly wants a corporate partner
Despite being present in India for over a decade, Ford’s journey here has not been really fruitful. A new report suggests that the US-based automaker has approached at least 6 companies to explore a potential partnership.
Ever since Ford India’s much-hyped joint venture with Mahindra fell last year, Ford has been aggressively looking for contract manufacturing opportunities and even the sale of some parts of its manufacturing operations.
Ford will allegedly decide on its investment plans for India “in the second half of this calendar year”. Speculations do point towards Ford’s possibility of partially or fully winding down its India operations if it fails to find a corporate partner.
In such a situation, the company would likely only sell imported CKD/CBU vehicles like Endeavour and Mustang in India while discontinuing the locally-built EcoSport and Figo series.
It must be noted that all this is based on rumours and speculations, so do take it with a grain of salt. However, given the company’s desperation for a corporate partnership, it seems like dark clouds do loom over Ford India’s customers and employees.