It's finally a curtain call for Ford Motor Company as the very last EcoSport takes the stage to take a bow. The last car was rolled out from Ford's Maraimalai Nagar facility. The EcoSport had been under production for export markets and with this unit, Ford India's stint of manufacturing cars for domestic and export markets comes to an end.
With this, Ford has become the third major carmaker to exit India after General Motors and Daewoo. The first announcement to stop selling cars in India was made in September 2021, but back then the company had stated that it would continue to manufacture and export from India.
The Sanand facility in Gujarat was shut first as Figo and Aspire were pulled off the shelves in India and abroad due to low sales and end of product life. The plant in Tamil Nadu kept manufacturing the EcoSport for international markets, including the US.
Besides other reasons why production was shut altogether is that plant capacity utilisation was low and unsustainable. Both plants that could produce over 4 lakh cars anually, were producing 80,000 units. Plus, Ford's partnership with Mahindra that was announced only in 2019 fell through in December 2020, which was a major setback Ford's stay in India.
Previously, Ford had stated six months after its India exit announcement that it was exploring possibilities of utilising a plant in India as an export base for electric vehicle manufacturing under the government's PLI scheme. However, the American carmaker decided to drop out of the scheme, pointing to the fact that its Chennai facility could pose a long-term challenge for production. Ford has big plans in the electric segment and would ideally need larger production capacity.
The white EcoSport, however, may not be the last Ford car to be seen in India. The company now has far lesser touchpoints in the country, but the brand has said that it will make imported CBU models available in India in the future. There hasn't been any update this front yet.
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