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Mahindra and Ford announced today that it will not continue the Joint Venture in India. The companies said in separate statements that the decision was driven by changes in the global economy over the last 15 months, causing both to reassess their capital allocation priorities. Back in 2019, Ford and Mahindra had said that they would form a joint venture in India in a move to cut costs for developing and producing vehicles for emerging markets, but now with the JV called off, does that end any form of collaboration between the two companies?
The EcoSport powered by a ew petrol engine from Mahindra will launch in under 1 year
Not at all. The company has already signed a collaboration with Ford on platform sharing and even engine sharing and this was called the Project Black. Speaking to the media, Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Auto and Farm Sector, Mahindra, “Our Joint Venture plans have ended, but we are still open to collaboration with the company. In fact, we are looking for partners in the EV space as well and platform sharing and engine sharing too are possibilities where both the company's can work together.”
Certain on-going projects between Ford and Mahindra will continue
While this is good news, it was made clear by Dr. Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra that the company is not bound by any of the agreements what have been signed earlier “We had signed a collaboration in 5 areas. The first was the development of the C601 platform which is now in an advanced stage so that will continue. The second was the BS6 petrol engine for the Ecosport, again that is at an advanced stage and significant investment has been made so the launch that product in less than a year away. The third was connectivity and that is already in place with cars like the XUV500. The fourth was in the field of mobility services and that has been already put on hold. Finally, there was the Aspire Electric car and that project has been put on hold as the investment was far too large and the product didn't fit in Mahindra's EV strategy which has a big focus on SUVs.”
All the collaborations, then under ‘Project Black' will be put under review and only then will there be a decision taken over the future of these ventures.
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