Ford is reportedly selling one of its manufacturing plants in India to Tata Motors, owner of Jaguar Land Rover, which intends to use it to produce EVs in the country.
The Sanand plant is located in the western state of Gujarat and recently came to market as Ford announced that it would stop producing vehicles in India, citing a market share of less than 2 percent. Ford struggled for over two decades to turn a profit in the market before calling it quits two months ago.
According to Reuters, the sale of the plant will include the land it sits on, all assets, as well as employees. The price of the sale was not disclosed, but The Economic Times reports that it may be in the neighborhood of $100-150 million. In addition to government incentives, Tata has also raised 1 billion dollars from the private firm TPG for its EV business.
Read: Tata Planning To Produce Its Own Semiconductors And EV Batteries
“Rising customer preference for passenger and electric vehicles made by Tata Motors has led to a multi-fold growth… this potential transaction will support expansion of capacity,” said Shailesh Chandra, managing director of Tata Passenger Electric Mobility.
Tata Motors dominates the electric car market in India and plans to grow it even further with billions of dollars in incentives from the government. Production capacity is expected to be 300,000 units per year once new machinery is installed to ramp up EV production, with the capacity to increase to 400,000 shortly after.
The deal will not include Ford’s second factory in the country, which produces engines for export markets.
