There appears to be some truth to the rumor that Ford is in advanced talks with a potential strategic partner in the burgeoning market of India. Reports indicate that the Mahindra Ltd auto manufacturing company is the key partner that Ford is looking to so that it can get a head start on building market share in what will soon be the world’s third largest market on the planet. The companies are looking to join forces on electric vehicles, sourcing, suppliers, mobility and connected car platforms. This has been a bit of a drama for the Ford Motor Company as its previous CEO, who was fired back in May, had been having second thoughts about getting into the Indian market and had stated that it was going to halt sales in that market.
His successor has quickly found a way to stay in the market and take off some cost pressures as well. This move is being seen by some as an indication of where the new Ford CEO sees the business going ahead of his scheduled strategy presentation to investors next month. The Indian market for autos is in the $30Billion dollars a year range and will place it comfortably in third place behind China and the US before 2020. This market opportunity has all the major players scrambling to try and get into the marketplace before the demand boom happens and try to curtail the gains that Suzuki and Hyundai have made in this market by being agile and nimble. Ford has been in the Indian market, in one way or the other, since the early 1990’s and is re-committing itself to the market and noted that it has already invested over $2Billion dollars in India on plants and manufacturing facilities and sees itself continuing to do so in the future.
