Ford has its eyes on the Indian market, announcing that they will work with Mahindra Group in order to explore a strategic alliance for a successful operating model in India and other emerging markets.
The two companies aim to cooperate in areas including connected vehicle projects, electrification, sharing costs on product development, improving Ford’s reach within India and improving Mahindra’s reach outside of India among other.
With GM already out of India and VW Group facing its own problems, there might be a good chance for Ford to finally gain a foothold in what’s set to become the world’s third-biggest market by 2020.
“Ford is committed to India and this alliance can help us deliver the best vehicles and services to customers while profitably growing in the world’s fifth largest vehicle market,” said Jim Farley, Ford executive vice president and president of Global Markets.
“The changes facing the automotive industry globally are triggered by the accelerated rise of new technologies, sustainability policies and new models of urban shared mobility,” added Pawan Goenka, managing director, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. “Given these changes we see the need to anticipate new market trends, explore alternatives and look for ways to collaborate even as we compete and build powerful synergies that will allow rapid exploitation of the exciting new opportunities.”
Mahindra is the leading manufacturer of utility vehicles in India for the past seven decades while they’re also the only company with available electric vehicles there. They’ve also own a majority stake in Ssangyong and own Pininfarina. Ford has three local manufacturing facilities in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Sanand, Gujarat and has more than 14,000 people working for them across the country.
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