With Ford now out of India, Tata Motors is looking to take over the former’s manufacturing plant in Sanand, Gujarat. According to some media reports, both the companies have already submitted a proposal. And the transfer of ownership will happen over the next week. Thus to clarify, the transfer of ownership will not include the engine factory. Ford will still use this unit as a key export base for Ford’s Panther engines.
Since Ford announced its exit from India, Tata Motors was the forerunner to acquire the manufacturing facility. Reports suggested that both MG and Ola had also expressed their interest to acquire the facility. With Ford’s Sanad facility, Tata Motors’ annual production will rise to around 3.9 lakh units per annum. Ford’s Sanand manufacturing facility has been set up at the cost of INR 4,500 crore. Furthermore, this facility also has an engine assembly with an annual capacity of 2.7 lakhs per annum. The target for FY23 is to produce close to 5 lakh to 6 lakh units per annum. And this acquisition will give Tata Motors enough resources to achieve the same.
With a slew of freshly launched products in the last 3 to 4 years, Tata Motors has pretty much revived itself in the Indian automotive market. Blockbuster launches like Nexon and Safari helped Tata Motors attract more attention, which is now reflected in terms of sales volume. Recently, Tata Motors became the country’s third most sold car maker behind Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai.
With the increasing demand, the production demand is also increasing. And hence the addition of a new manufacturing facility makes complete sense for Tata Motors. In the electric mobility segment, Tata Motors is India’s largest four-wheeler EV maker. Two of its offerings, Nexon EV and Tigor EV, are selling in good numbers and make up more than 50 per cent of the sales volume in the electric four-wheeler segment.
Also Read: Tata Motors bags order of 250 EVs from Aurangabad Mission Green Mobility.