With the last EcoSport rolling off production line, it is curtains down for Ford India

The Ford EcoSport launched in 2013 has been the best-selling car from Ford India’s stables. Roughly 27,000 models were sold in 2020 alone.

Nearly ten months after announcing its plans to exit the Indian car market, Ford Motor Company has now applied brakes to its manufacturing operations with the last batch of EcoSport models getting rolled out from the company’s Maraimalai Nagar production facility off Chennai on July 20, 2022. Ford India had earlier announced that it will wind down the manufacturing of vehicles for exports in Sanand, Gujarat by the fourth quarter of 2021 and vehicle and engine manufacturing in Chennai by the second quarter of 2022.

While the company’s Sanand plant, which has already stopped production (the last model being Freestyle), is now taken over by Tata Motors, its Chennai plant, which was making EcoSport models for overseas markets, is yet to find any suitor yet.

Samuel Iyadurai, Human Resources Manager at Ford India, in a LinkedIn post stated, “I was feeling emotional after the final car came out of the Chennai Ford car Plant. The legacy of 25 years comes to an end at the Chennai Plant. Since I have been associated with the Chennai plant for the past 11 years, I can also understand other employees' feelings as well. Fantastic team, fantastic product, fantastic workplace, and even better work culture. We all first showcased at the Auto Expo 2012 and launched a year later, the Ford EcoSport was one of the pioneers in the sub-4 meter compact SUV market in India. With the price tag of Rs 5.59 lakh, Ford India even managed to disrupt the market by logging in record bookings during the initial phase.

Puneet Gupta, Director - Automotive Forecasting from S&P maintains, “Ford EcoSport was a perfect compact SUV with a complete package of space, price, and positioning. However, the company was unable to capitalize on it due to its less reach of the dealer network and due to the inability of the company to create excitement in the market, “adding, “Moreover less profitability on every vehicle sold in the domestic vehicle and more focus, especially in beginning years on exports were another reason where it was unable to capitalize on flying start.”

Anurag Mehrotra, Former Country Head of Ford India did not take calls when contacted for comments. Ford India spokesperson, while confirming the development stated, “The last vehicle rolled out of the final assembly yesterday thus completing the export commitments. The rest of the work related to Aftersales parts and sub-assemblies continues at the Chennai plant. As earlier communicated, the Company will continue production till end-July 2022.”

Earlier this year, Ford India announced that it got approval from the Government of India for its proposal to build Electric Vehicles under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the automobile sector. But within a month, the company reversed its plans and affirmed that it will not make any further investment in India, even under the PLI scheme.

Anindya Roy Choudhury, Automobile Sales Training professional and also a Ford customer believes that the company made cars of good build quality but lagged behind in certain after-sales areas which became his pain points. He told Moneycontrol, “I still drive the original Figo and had narrow misses and lifesaving incidents as well. But the areas the company disappointed me are 1: Consistent service quality, 2) Same place, spare part availability, 3) Implementation of changes at a slow pace, 4) Missing out on fast facelifts and 5) Even my top-end variant at that time did not have alloy wheels.”