After 25 year efforts in vain to get significant foothold in car market the country, Ford called it quits from all manufacturing activities in India, last month.
Though, one of the first foreign car manufacturer to arrive in India, Ford Motor Co, manufactured 5 models, EcoSport, Figo, Freestyle, Endeavour and Aspire, locally. It however could manage only a meagre 1.7 percent market share in the passenger vehicle segment.Now with last of the stocked parts coming to an end, the production has come to an end at Sanand plant.
Ford, at Sanand plant manufactured Figo, Aspire and Freestyle models which posed unequal challenge to the dominance of Maruti Swift and Dzire. Experts believe that it would have been better for Ford to focus on segments where market leader Maruti had little presence. Taking on Maruti directly appears to be a mistake in hindsight.
Ford has invested $2.5 billion into plants at Sanand and Chennai. It appears that Chennai Plant will be taken over by Tata Motors. If so, it will be good news for thousands of the workers and ancillary businesses.
Ford is the 5th automaker to stop manufacturing in India. Others are MAN Trucks, Fiat, General Motors, Harley Davidson and UM Motorcycles.
