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Ford/Mahindra partnership ends


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6 hours ago, passis said:

 

Thank you passis sir. Here is Ford's official announcement today. Ford Restructures India Operations: Plans to Grow Ford Business Solutions; Serve Customers with Iconic Global Vehicles; Cease Local Vehicle Manufacturing | Ford Media Center

 

Highlights.

  • Ford plans to significantly expand its 11,000-employee Business Solutions team in India in coming years to support Ford globally; team to focus on engineering, technology, and business operations centres of excellence
  • Ford India will cease manufacturing vehicles for sale in India immediately; manufacturing of vehicles for export will wind down at Sanand vehicle assembly plant by Q4 2021, and Chennai engine and vehicle assembly plants by Q2 2022; Ford will work closely with employees, unions, dealers and suppliers to care for those directly impacted
  • Ford plans to serve customers in India with must-have, iconic vehicles, including Mustang coupe. Customers in India also will benefit longer term from the Company’s plan to invest more than US$30 billion globally to deliver all-new hybrid and fully electric vehicles, such as Mustang Mach-E
  • India will remain home to Ford’s second-largest salaried workforce globally; in addition to Ford Business Solutions, Ford India will continue engine manufacturing for export, as well as full customer support operations with service, aftermarket parts and warranty support
  • Ford India’s restructuring will advance the Ford+ plan for growth and value creation by strengthening automotive operations and capitalizing on unprecedented opportunities in electric and connected vehicles and enhanced customer experiences
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With GM exiting the India market completely and Ford restructuring its India operations to emphasize Business Solutions COE, will any American automaker succeed with full scale vehicle assembly (not knock down) in that country? There are reports that Tesla plans to build a Gigafactory in India.

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40 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

With GM exiting the India market completely and Ford restructuring its India operations to emphasize Business Solutions COE, will any American automaker succeed with full scale vehicle assembly (not knock down) in that country? There are reports that Tesla plans to build a Gigafactory in India.

 

GM reentered India last year with imported Baojun 530 (aka Chevy Captiva) rebadged as MG Hector. MG India is a joint venture with SAIC and GM so they will both sell their respective vehicles under the MG brand in India.

 

Ford's plan in India now appears to be more or less the same as Brazil - focus on imported luxury vehicles (by local market standards) and forgot about competing with Hyundai and Toyota in the mass market. 

 

I think Farley really didn't see any point in selling affordable vehicles in emerging growth market and this is not a surprise after Russia and Brazil pull out. I'm honestly shocked that Ford is still hanging on in Thailand. 

 

 

Edited by bzcat
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55 minutes ago, bzcat said:

 

and this is not a surprise after Russia and Brazil pull out. I'm honestly shocked that Ford is still hanging on in Thailand.

 

 

I think Thailand fits into the Ranger scheme, alongside South Africa and Argentina. Now - with Russia, Brazil and India gone, as we had predicted -  the Ecosport is officially dead (it has been a dead horse since it didn't get a new generation around 2018) so the Ranger should be Ford's global vehicle - God knows for how long...

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15 minutes ago, passis said:

 

I think Thailand fits into the Ranger scheme, alongside South Africa and Argentina. Now - with Russia, Brazil and India gone, as we had predicted -  the Ecosport is officially dead (it has been a dead horse since it didn't get a new generation around 2018) so the Ranger should be Ford's global vehicle - God knows for how long...

 

Basically, Thailand, Argentina, and South Africa got lucky and landed Ranger production site. And Brazil and India were on the wrong side with EcoSport and Figo/Ka. 

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1 hour ago, bzcat said:

 

Basically, Thailand, Argentina, and South Africa got lucky and landed Ranger production site. And Brazil and India were on the wrong side with EcoSport and Figo/Ka. 

 

Exactly. Ford is not developing B cars, so those plants become useless and need shutting down... unless Ford had interest in converting them to something else: Maverick, CX758/Escape and Bronco Sport are not so low-margin in underdeveloped markets, au contraire... And they could live on for many years after EVs kill ICEs in developed countries.

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3 hours ago, passis said:

 

I think Thailand fits into the Ranger scheme, alongside South Africa and Argentina. Now - with Russia, Brazil and India gone, as we had predicted -  the Ecosport is officially dead (it has been a dead horse since it didn't get a new generation around 2018) so the Ranger should be Ford's global vehicle - God knows for how long...

T6 project gets handed back to Ford North America in 2028,

after that I expect Ranger will become US centric and  LHD only.

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16 minutes ago, twintornados said:

I don't see that happening inasmuch as I see Ranger remaining a player in the world market.

As soon as America gets their hands on the program, they will screw it up.

When US Ranger package was handed over, the US Ford guys were floored

by how immense the global platform was. 

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16 minutes ago, jpd80 said:

As soon as America gets their hands on the program, they will screw it up.

When US Ranger package was handed over, the US Ford guys were floored

by how immense the global platform was. 

 

That was then....I am hopeful that there is a new mindset in Ford these days that will realize that Ranger is indeed a global product and it needs to be handled with the same care as F150 is for NA marketplace.

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8 minutes ago, twintornados said:

 

That was then....I am hopeful that there is a new mindset in Ford these days that will realize that Ranger is indeed a global product and it needs to be handled with the same care as F150 is for NA marketplace.

Then wasn’t so long ago, it’s not the mindset so much as too many short hires in key positions.

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8 minutes ago, twintornados said:

 

I don't fear disaster as long as Farley is in charge.

This is not about who’s in charge of the company, it’s about who actually does the heavy lifting….

by then I think Ford will be pushing electric pickups on everyone, so everything changes

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On 9/10/2021 at 6:18 PM, jpd80 said:

This is not about who’s in charge of the company, it’s about who actually does the heavy lifting….

by then I think Ford will be pushing electric pickups on everyone, so everything changes

 

Good point jpd80 sir. The most important thing is for Ford's corporate culture to change. Even now, Ford's culture still tolerates making the same mistakes over and over. Like the debacle discussed in this thread about Ford India Pvt Ltd.

 

Hopefully with Jim Farley's leadership and the transition to electric vehicles, that change will finally come.

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With the political environment right now and potential PR disaster for Americans/Canadians and to a lesser extent Europeans; people will be more likely to buy cars built in India than they would in China and won’t have the massive political blowback as a Chinese sourced production site. With Russia in the old eastern block causing issues they are probably hedging bets on low cost production sites. 

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36 minutes ago, jasonj80 said:

With the political environment right now and potential PR disaster for Americans/Canadians and to a lesser extent Europeans; people will be more likely to buy cars built in India than they would in China and won’t have the massive political blowback as a Chinese sourced production site. With Russia in the old eastern block causing issues they are probably hedging bets on low cost production sites. 

 

How many Ford products made in China are sold in the US vs how many Ford products made in India are sold in the US?

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5 hours ago, twintornados said:

 

How many Ford products made in China are sold in the US vs how many Ford products made in India are sold in the US?


In the US, Currently 1 from India and 0 from China, however at one point 5 were to be imported from China. Where those plans stand today is still tbd. 

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8 hours ago, jasonj80 said:


In the US, Currently 1 from India and 0 from China, however at one point 5 were to be imported from China. Where those plans stand today is still tbd. 

 

The "stigma" of importing from China is a big barrier....not insurmountable, but it is a big barrier. I see a fair amount of Ecosports running around and no one bitches about them being made in India...but, then again I see the occasional Buick Envision on the road and not a lot of complaining but they are built in China for the NA market...I guess it is only bad if Ford does it.

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