[saisree]

Welcome back Ford. We are getting Jobs. That's a wonderful decision. Why leave a plant to rot which is capable of building class products.
Now the question is, are they going to restart the Chennai plant or Sanand Plant? Mind says Sanand, Heart says Chennai.

[aashishnb]

Can we expect a very well priced F150 electric truck here?? Will clean out the market probably

[fiat_tarun]

Ford is only looking at manufacturing EV's in India for a 100% export requirement to begin with. I don't see this as a 'confused' move at all as they are not re-entering the India market as a mainstream manufacturer. It is not that they are developing an India specific EV, but use the plant to help clear the huge backlog they have now and in the future.

Ford had clearly said India will benefit from their EV plan in the future and now it looks like we have local production making them a little more affordable !

From their exit press release -

Ford will begin importing and selling must-have, iconic vehicles, including Mustang coupe. Customers in India also will benefit longer term from the Company’s plan to invest more than $30 billion globally to deliver all-new hybrid and fully electric vehicles, such as Mustang Mach-E.

They have been very clear in their strategy of investing in the EV future and a couple of factors have made them look at this decision.

1. Both the Mach-E & F150 Lightning have received very good market response
2. The F50 Lightning has a 3 year waiting period & could be sign for future mainstream EV's...
3. The Indian government's PLI scheme offers good incentives to make in India
4. They have a ready state of the art plant in Sanand which has not yet found a buyer

If this plan does go through, I do not expect any domestic sales for the initial years till EV's become a sizable market here and they cater to their main markets first. The CBU plan might continue as planned.

Having said this, having an active operation does make it easier to re-enter if they so wish to do so, however the current announcement does not point to that at all.

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by Electromotive

Export only. Seems like Ford HQ is interested in some sweatshop work, govt. handouts, and material cost arbitrage. Might be they also want to keep a foot in the door in the Indian market.

From the start of Deng Xiaoping's reforms to about the mid 00's, "material cost and labour arbitrage, govt sops, sweatshop work" is exactly what took China to a global economic powerhouse.

If Ford wants to set up an EV manufacturing operation here, be it for exports or domestic consumption, I don't understand the derision. It will still generate investment (min 2,000 cr per the PLI scheme) and jobs. That bad for us now?

Originally Posted by dust-n-bones

While most posts on this thread are about how shockingly were Indian customers treated due to Ford's sudden exit (true), this thread is about Ford investing in EV manufacturing capability in India.

We should discuss that on its own merit, regardless of whether Ford offers those EVs in India, or Indians should pick up the courage to buy a Ford again.

That should be a good thing certainly? We have, by the way, already missed the boat for EVs, whether in researching for EV technologies, manufacturing or creating the infrastructure for their adoption.

Agree fully with you on everything you said except the bit about India missing the EV boat.

Given that EV sales form not even 9% of just total PV sales (and around 3% of total commercial vehicle sales) and is expected to hit 50% by 2030, the market will double every year for the next 8 years.

We are not first movers but given our labour arbitrage and the PLI sops that make per unit production costs even lower ($9bn was the PLI rolled out last year for EV but revised to $4 bn this year) we are to use a metaphor, on the first floor.

We can insert ourselves into the global EV ecosystem by 2030 if our production gains momentum.

With China decoupling from the West (since the mid 00's) and the West + Japan + S Korea + Taiwan increasingly decoupling from China, though this will take a decade in established industries but EV is still nascent so India can benefit from these trade wars, makes even more sense why India should make a play.

[Theyota]

Independent of the success of Ford in India, I must say Ford has contributed a lot to the Indian automotive Industry even though they have never maid money from India.

- Ford has developed a huge supplier base in India who are supplying to Ford and others all over the world
- Ford has developed a huge human resource base in India, many of which it has deputed all over the world. I personally knew/seen over 30 Indians deputed to a not so India friendly country with top of the line expat benefits. Some of them were my neighbors. Some of them had done time in Ford Australia, Ford Thailand, Ford Japan, etc. before coming their. As far as I know, Ford has setup a large back office in Chennai that supports in engineering, sourcing, finance, controlling, etc.
- Unlike during the exit of GM, there was not much noise by FADA or the dealer community in general. This means, dealers may have received a fair compensation for their losses as a result of Ford’s exit

I think the key reasons that Ford failed in India was due to over investing, huge overheads, expecting Chinese growth rate in India and globally driven decision making.

Also all auto giants are having to invest billions in their new energy future without returns until who knows when. For being able to do this, they have to cut down on losses by exiting markets where they are sure of not making money in the near future. In case of Ford, it also had a sudden slowdown in exponentially large Chinese market, so they needed to focus their resources in protecting their turf in China which also requires massive amounts of investment.

If Ford wants to come back to India to produce EVs, they should be welcomed with red carpet.

[drift87]

There could be a possibility that the products are catered only to the export market. IMO, Ford would not consider production for the indigenous market considering the losses incurred to various stakeholders due to their hasty exit. I consider any investment as a win-win situation in the current scenario.

[dust-n-bones]

Originally Posted by Stribog

Agree fully with you on everything you said except the bit about India missing the EV boat.

Given that EV sales form not even 9% of just total PV sales (and around 3% of total commercial vehicle sales) and is expected to hit 50% by 2030, the market will double every year for the next 8 years.

Agreed that India can still play a part. My point is that the 'lay of the land' has now been decided by China, the US and Europe in terms of overall technology, manufacturing process, regulations and supporting infrastructure. This has happened right before our eyes, while Indian industry and policy making has barely registered a ripple.

With some smart policy making and a bit of luck, we could have leapfrogged our irrelevance and ushered in a grounds-up new industry (or at least a slice) which would have paid back decades into the future.

Having lost that 'boat', now, we will have to rely on cost and labour arbitrage at the 'sweatshop' end. As you rightly said, no shame in climbing the rope from the bottom.

The risk we run at the bottom of this food chain is that EVs may not really need the elaborate supply chains that ICE vehicles do. Do they need cheap labor when robotic factories can work 24*7? Will they need sweatshops or high technology clusters?
I'm not qualified to answer this, but I have my doubts.

Tesla can manufacture EVs in (surprise) the US, and (surprise, surprise), Fremont, California. Locations for Tesla Gigafactories is also telling a story. If we care to listen.

All the more reason to thank Ford for revisiting these shores.

[yashg]

While I really like my Figo Aspire, I will not buy another Ford vehicle if they come back to India with EVs. I just don’t trust the brand to hang around. In fact after Chevrolet and Ford, I would be vary of any large American brand for whom Indian business is a drop in the ocean. You just can’t rely on them to support their customers and stand behind their products.

[NYMEX]

We are emotional people and tend to over-react to situations.

The Sanand plant was shut down for vehicle assembly because the numbers were not enough but the engine plant is still running for the export market. The decision to manufacture EV could have been made a few months back to take advantage of the government schemes. There is nothing unethical in this practice and does not deserve negative emotional responses.

The reopening of the plant would generate jobs which we should encourage to demonstrate that we are an investment friendly country. Hopefully the importance of this is not lost on people who themselves are dependent on economic prosperity. On a wider perspective - open your market to external investment and you buy influence which has helped India immensely especially in past 15 years.

Also with time we will be able to grow our own EV technology as we have in case of space technology.

So lets us get our act together and welcome all well meaning manufacturers at all times for our own good.

[motorpsycho]

With how new Endeavor looks, it would have given a very very tough fight to Fortuner, also to quote Sirish Chandran who spoke about the Ford's XUV700 edition, it was much much better looking than MM's and the interior were also better. It seems the Ford Mmgt did not think, it would sell well.