[LaRoca]

Originally Posted by ashis89

This news and then there are reports of an impending launch of Figo AT in the next few weeks. Ford also discontinued a variant of Endeavour.

Are they in stock clearance mode already?

But then they're testing a facelift of the Ecosport too.

GM, just several months prior to their India exit, introduced their flagship the Chevy Trailblazer.

Any coincidence here?

[ScorpioYadav]

I can see this global trend by OEMs to shrink & protect their profitable markets as they need to avoid bleeding cash in order to invest in the Electric & Connected Car ecosystems.
Once this new tech gets stabilised, the dust gets settled after the churn from ICE & cos. start to make money again, then we’ll again see them pursuing global expansion, I give it a timeframe of 25-30 years, say around 2050 (if it happens quicker, better for all of us or our offsprings).

Coming back to Ford India, were they ever seriously committed to our market? I mean, even after the runaway success of EcoSport, for the following 8 years, all we’ve got from them are Cosmetic Changes (& not facelifts, moving the grille up from bumper to the bonnet height isn’t facelifting). EcoSport’s rear door still opens on the wrong side, their taillights are nothing more than nightbulbs in this era of blinding LEDs. This is not how a serious player behaves or operates. Thank God, at least, they flipped the indicator & wiper stalks to suit local driving habits !!

Credit where credit is due, Hyundai has done a stellar job considering the fact that they were an unknown name back then, when they launched & their initial offering was an ugly duckling. Compare it to the brand recall Ford had even in a closed economy before launching after liberalisation.

So for the time being, let’s accept the inevitable & wait for the 2040s. Hope our taxation structure also gets updated till then & owning is car is not considered a sin !!

[justwheels]

Any business when going through any sort of restructure will first save the profitable business. In case of Ford, that is North America and Canada. Their new product deleopments like the light pick up Ford Maverick and continued investments in large SUVs and trucks do not fall in line with Indian market at all.
So the exit is imminent, when, is the only question.

Having owned the ecosport myself till last month, I feel sad that we will miss a good product. But what we will not miss is the lazy approach of Ford to make India a serious market. But then this was in the making since many years. The only other option is to make India a large export base to benefit from economies of scale and cheap labour cost. But many companies cater to Europe from Turkey where transport cost is low, and South America from Mexico, Brazil. So Ford is set for the departure for sure.

How much ever we like, but not many global players will make it big in India unless they play the market in the mass segment, which means to fight it out with the Indian and Korean brands, which is not easy.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

My view is they are staying, otherwise why will they invest further into a facelift Ecosport, Figo AT, etc.

I speculated along the same lines. But then another thought says Ecosport is exported and sold in overseas market. Ford can continue exports even if they plan to stop local operations. So this Ecosport facelift wouldn't assure of Ford's commitments. Figo AT could be a stock clearance ploy (Ford is known to introduce and withdraw models like seasons of a year!)

Hope this theory is proven wrong.

Originally Posted by LaRoca

GM, just several months prior to their India exit, introduced their flagship the Chevy Trailblazer.

Any coincidence here?

Trailblazer was a CBU. There's hardly any effort to launch a CBU in India.

The Ford models are manufactured here. Introducing something new takes time, effort and lot of investments to the OEM.

[allinbalance]

Originally Posted by ACM

I feel trying to find contract manufacturing job work or to sell of excess manufacturing capacities to new players does not necessarily indicate that Ford plans to pack up and leave.

It is logical in business to optimise operations.

It on the other hand could be an indicator of things to come but not necessarily.

I agree. Selling a unused / partially used manufacturing facility which is a sunk cost and no hope of using it is always the prudent thing to do. I run manufacturing business and I would do the same thing every time.

Even if Ford completely outsources its manufacturing and limits the models to what they can sell, it also does not mean that they wont add a few models over time. That Ford has decided to exit manufacturing maybe a given, but there is no compelling evidence to think they are exiting India.

However, as @GTO pointed out, there is precedent of a Global CEO of a car major lying through her teeth and then pulling out abruptly. This is a wait and watch kind of unfolding event.

[Moroder]

I think team- bhp itself is becoming a source of rumour. We had multiple discussions in this forum regarding the same without concrete evidence. People tend to believe team-bhp rather than some of the some of the media houses. I have seen multiple instances in various other forums where people use team-bhp headings and making people put off their purchases. Why we need to write an obituary for someone still alive?. Most people disregard the rumour word in our headings. Ford has still given us much better products compared to some manufacturers, I think they are more committed to us. At least they gave us the endeavour at a competent price. I apologise for strong words could not help it when I saw a group like us which wants better cars killing of someone who at-least gave us some.

[PYSO]

Originally Posted by Moroder

I think team- bhp itself is becoming a source of rumour. We had multiple discussions in this forum regarding the same without concrete evidence. People tend to believe team-bhp rather than some of the some of the media houses. I have seen multiple instances in various other forums where people use team-bhp headings and making people put off their purchases. Why we need to write an obituary for someone still alive?. Most people disregard the rumour word in our headings.

Fully agree. I think TBHP is doing a poor job here. Social media has a strong tendency to amplify negativity, And TBHP should be careful not be behave like just another Social media platform.

TBHP is not merely playing with the reputation of Ford India. It's playing with its own credibility here. What if Ford India continues operations and launches new products? TBHP will look like just another rumor mongering, sensationalizing, click-baiting social media platform.

And it's not wise to ignore the legal risks. Ford India could easily sue TBHP for tarnishing it's reputation. Just a few days ago, ITC Ltd hit a friend of mine (who runs a PMS service) with a 100 crore legal suit for a blog he had written about the underperformance of the stock price of ITC Ltd.

Sorry to call this out.

[Ragavsr]

Originally Posted by PYSO

And it's not wise to ignore the legal risks. Ford India could easily sue TBHP for tarnishing it's reputation. Just a few days ago, ITC Ltd hit a friend of mine (who runs a PMS service) with a 100 crore legal suit for a blog he had written about the underperformance of the stock price of ITC Ltd.

There is a difference between writing an article based on Ford's exiting India which is in no uncertain terms illegal by any means versus your so called friend suggesting in an article that ITC indulged in insider trading and financial fraud which is a serious allegation to make.

Your friend deserves to be sued if the allegation is true (Disclaimer : I haven't read the article ) . Sorry for OT.

[PYSO]

I was not defending my friend. I had considered multiple times to ask him to tone down his blogs. Somehow i never did. Now I regret that.

When it's written in a public forum with zero evidence, both are equally criminal.

Expressing opinions privately, is not the same as publishing it publicly.

[cool_dube]

Not sure why we have to equate "collaboration discussions" to "exit"! Hasn't this topic been beaten to death over the last year or two?

Anyways, I reached out to my Ford dealer. Here is a communication relayed to all Ford dealers by Ford India, for whatever it is worth:

[ToThePoint]

This topic has been beaten to death on this forum and in multiple threads as well. Not sure about legal implications, however, Team-bhp being a widely read forum in the automotive scene, it's sending wrong signals to both potential buyers as well as current owners.

Requesting Mods to close the thread and not allow new one on this topic unless we hear from Ford similar to what @cool_dube has shared.

[SVK Rider]

This is such a confusing situation.
I hope Ford should come up with some concrete press release,
Even if they want to leave India, be blunt and have the courage to say so before wrapping it up from here.
They make some good cars and due to their inefficiency to understand the Indian market they are loosing the grounds here.
They can never be like Maruti with the fossil fuel cars at all, they should realize it and bring in newer models and proper updates which will help them in terms of sales.
However from last 7/8 years of product portfolio of Ford India, they seemed least interest in Indian Market.

The big question really is now to keep my Ford Vehicle or not. Heart says something which brain is not approving at all.

[padmrajravi]

It just takes a strongly worded press release to destroy all these rumors. The fact that it is not coming even after this thread got into to the homepage is worrying. They should act immediately if they have long-term plans in India. This is robbing them of a lot of sales. Such rumors have the ability to trigger chain reactions that leads to eventual exits itself.

[sanchari]

The report on Ford's exit was published in The Economic Times, which claims to have the highest circulation for business newspapers in India, and is part of Times group which routinely claims to be India's No 1 newspaper. They claimed it was based on their sources. The discussion on T-BHP resumed after that article. Even earlier, the discussions were based on public media reports.

To claim that T-BHP forum is misleading people and will cause loss of goodwill to Ford, or that its spreading rumors is laughable! If Ford is going to sue, they will first have to sue the Times group!

T-BHP is an important site for unbiased reviews and honest opinions. But over-inflating the clout of T-BHP is self-aggrandizing, and falsely accusing it of spreading rumours is laughable

[sup?]

As an Ecosport owner for 8 years now coming up to a lakh on the odometer, I am very happy with the car and was hoping they would bring something to compete with the Creta/Seltos/Hector range of cars. Now, with the currently available range of SUVs in the 20 lakh plus category, honestly none of them excite me or if they do, they are overpriced like the Jeep Compass. I guess I should just run my car down for another 5 years or so till electric cars and charging infra make owning an electric vehicle practical.