US auto major Ford's pick-up truck - Ford Ranger - was spotted at Jayem Automotives' Coimbatore facility this week. The spy shots, published on some auto portals, showed the semi-finished products being transported from Coimbatore to Chennai.
The photographs showed prototypes, semi-finished products parked at the Jayem facility and semi-finished products being transported from the facility to Chennai.
Sources said that in its right-hand-driven form, the Ford Ranger is manufactured at the Auto Alliance plant in Thailand. The vehicle is essentially the Ford Endeavour platform and Ford could be planning to make India the export hub for the pick-up truck.
Just like the SUV, the pick-up truck is also expected to be imported into India via the CKD route.
Reports stated that the kits are assembled by Jayem and are shipped to Chennai for final assembly for both domestic and export markets including Sri Lanka, South Africa, among others.
If the product is launched in the Indian market it will be positioned against other pick-up trucks in India including the Tata Yodha, Mahindra Bolero and Isuzu D-max
Jayem is an independent automotive R&D company involved in design, development, testing and manufacturing of a wide range of automotive components, systems and prototypes.
J Anand, a racer who has won Formula 3 car racing four times on the Chennai track, is a third generation entrepreneur who spearheads Jayem's ctivities including J A Motorsport, a race car manufacturing facility.
The company's customers include Tata, Jaguar, Ford, Renault Nissan, Hyundai, Hero, Bharat Benz, Bosch, MRF, VOlvo and TVS among others
Earlier, Jayem Automotives was responsible for the development of the Tata Tiago/Tigor JTP, the turbocharged performance-oriented iterations of their standard version in partnership with Tata Motors. But, earlier this year Tata ended the partnership, dissolving JTSV (Jayem-Tata Special Vehicles) operations.
In 1999, Jayem entered into a JV with Mahindra & Mahindra to develop various new vehicles, engines and suspension systems. The company also worked with Hindustan Motors on the development of various vehicles.
In 2005, Jayem severed ties with M&M and partnered with Tata Motors to continue testing and developing various vehicle development programmes.
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