Ford customers have voiced their support for the American carmaker amidst the reports of the brand exiting India. The reports surfaced online after Ford was allegedly trying to sell its manufacturing plants in India. It has been in talks with multiple carmakers to sell out the facility due to the low monthly sales of its products. In comparison to the sales, the production capacity of the carmaker is huge. Therefore, keeping the production sites doesn’t make much sense and might incur maintenance costs. Citroen, the newest carmaker in India was also in talks with Ford to buy that manufacturing plant. The French carmaker is ready to expand its reach in India.
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The next product from Citroen will be a compact SUV. That will be a mass-market product and a production facility with large capacity might have just been the thing that Citroen would be looking for. But they must have made their own plans before coming to India. So, that deal did not go through. Also, the talks with MG have not materialized. MG also plans to launch a Creta-rivalling mid-size SUV (likely to be named Astor) soon. They could also have done with an additional manufacturing unit. All this is the direct consequence of the Ford-Mahindra Joint Venture being called off earlier this year. Both the companies had planned to develop multiple products through that partnership. But those plans got destroyed by the pandemic after both the companies decided to allocate the funds for other more pressing projects.
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Ford Products in India
Although Ford is not selling too many products in India at the moment, the ones that are on sale have a loyal fanbase. As is clear from this video, customers who own Ford products don’t get tired of singing praises of the build quality and powerful engines. That is true as well. The engine of the compact SUV, EcoSport, is still one of the most powerful engines around in the petrol guise without turbocharging technology. Previously, it featured the award-winning 1.0-litre EcoBoost turbo petrol engine. The driving dynamics of the Ford products are also something that people adore and the enthusiasts respect. Therefore, the support for the carmaker is strong and genuine.
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Is Ford Really Exiting India?
While no one has a clear-cut answer to this question we can assume a few things. Ford has been bringing out minor updates to the EcoSport and Endeavour in recent times. The Figo, Aspire and Freestyle, on the other hand, have not received too many updates or facelifts. Probably, there is just too much competition in that segment from the Japanese and Korean rivals but the EcoSport and Endeavour do still stand a chance to compete strongly in their respective segments. It is not likely that Ford will leave our market anytime soon because the new automatic variant of the Figo is arriving at the dealerships. For the customers, you shouldn’t really worry about Ford exiting India because even if it does, the service and spare parts will be available for at least 15 more years after the exit.
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