Overview of Ford Crisis
With the launch of the Figo automatic in July and the imminent launch of the EcoSport facelift, seen in numerous spy photos, it would appear that it’s business as usual for Ford India. However, it’s anything but. The American brand is facing the biggest crisis of its 25-year existence in India as it stares at a product drought for the next 2-3 years, with no new models in the offing.
A big drop in bread-and-butter export volumes, as well as COVID-19-related disruptions, has added to the woes of the company, which is now struggling with a dated product portfolio to sustain its operations in India.
Ford unable to find another partner in India Likely to wind up manufacturing operations at Sanand and Maraimalai Nagar Ford presence in India to continue through niche imports Production has dropped to just 80,000 units (half of this is exported), which is just 20 percent of the 4,00,000 cars Ford’s plants in Sanand and Maraimalai Nagar are geared to churn out every year.
Such low plant capacity utilisation is unsustainable, which is why Ford India has been desperately seeking another manufacturer to share the capacity with, either by way of contract manufacturing, a joint-venture (JV), or even the sale of one of its plants.
Full Article: https://www.autocarindia.com/car-news/ford-faces-tough-future....