Back in September 2021, Ford announced that it would be ending its manufacturing operations in India after years of losses, meaning that both the Sanand Assembly plant and Chennai Assembly plant would be closing down as well. The automaker wound up finding a buyer for the Sanand plant in Tata Motors shortly thereafter, but struggled to find a taker for the Chennai plant. However, rumors pertaining to Ford’s potential return to India have swirled for some time now, and last month, the automaker announced that it will indeed restart production in that country – though that revival may hinge on one specific type of vehicle, it seems.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Tamil Nadu Industries Minister T.R.B. Rajaa noted that Ford hasn’t yet decided what kind of vehicles it will build in India once it restarts production there, but he also hinted that it could very well be all-electric ones. “If you go by trend, the investors that come into Tamil Nadu over the past few years have brought their EV lines,” Rajaa said. “They do know the ecosystem is ripe and the discussions are also on those lines.”
This certainly isn’t the first time such rumors have surfaced, as back in March, another report suggested that Ford was considering the idea of building EVs in India at the Chennai plant, following a retooling for that purpose. The thought at that time was that Ford would build EVs in India both for the domestic market and to export to other global markets, too. However, as part of its official announcement last month, The Blue Oval only stated that it would be producing vehicles in that country for export, specifically. Earlier this year, the Indian government announced plans to boost EV manufacturing there by lowering import taxes for foreign automakers who pledge to invest at least $500 million, making such an endeavor a bit more enticing.
Meanwhile, Ford continues to bet the proverbial farm on its skunkworks EV team, which has been developing a new low-cost platform for the past couple of years. That architecture is expected to spawn multiple new models that will be better positioned to compete with the likes of Tesla and Chinese EV makers, but it’s unclear where those vehicles will be built, for now.
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