Ford turns to India for expansion in global exports

Ford Motor Co. is turning to India to expand its exporting business globally. In 2021, the US-based legacy automaker said it would shut down its factories in India. Now, Ford is chasing directions. 

In a recent LinkedIn post, Ford’s President of International Markets Group Kay Hart shared that the company has submitted a Letter of Intent (LOI) to the Government of Tamil Nadu in India. The LOI outlines Ford’s plans to use its Chennai plant to manufacture exports. 

“The decision follows multiple meetings with the Tamil Nadu Government, including one I had last week with the Honorable Chief Minister of the Government of Tamil Nadu as part of his visit to the United States…

“This step underscores our ongoing commitment to India as we intend to leverage the manufacturing expertise available in Tamil Nadu to serve new global markets,” said Hart in her post. 

Ford plans to hire more people for its Chennai facility. Currently, the company has a workforce of 12,000. It plans to increase its employee count by 2,500 or 3,000 over the next few years. 

Interestingly enough, Tamil Nadu is one of the states Tesla was reportedly considering when there were talks of building a manufacturing facility in India. Tesla also considered Maharashtra and Gujarat. Unfortunately, Tesla’s plans for India are up in the air as no progress has been reported on the rumored investment for a few months. 

A few automakers have been looking into India since it introduced an EV policy that is friendly to foreign investments. Hyundai seems to have taken the biggest leap, filing for an initial public offering in India. In contrast, China’s Ministry of Commerce has strongly advised Chinese automakers against investing in India.

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