Ford and Mahindra join hands to develop new SUVs and EV

MANILA: The American multinational automaker, Ford signed a MoU with the Indian multinational car manufacturing company Mahindra to improve their alliance that began in the month of September, last year. Both the companies have joined hands to develop new SUVs (Sport-Utility Vehicle) and small EV (Electric Vehicle).

Interestingly, the upcoming SUVs will be sold independently by both companies as separate brands. This means that the main purpose of this deal is to take care of the production part. Although the details of the new SUVs are foggy till now, one thing is certain that the new midsize SUV will be built on the Mahindra platform. Apparently, the Ford-Mahindra developed SUVs seem to have a promising future as the teams of both the companies will be working together to make use of leveraged mutual strengths. According to Dr. Pawan Goenka, the Managing Director of Mahindra and Mahindra Limited, this coming together of companies will help them in “keeping with industry requirements”.

Strikingly, the Dearborn headquartered Automobiles Company – Ford, has also announced the unveiling of the Bronco in 2020 simultaneously with smaller off-road oriented SUVs. The chances that these two will also be using the Mahindra platform are quite low. It is speculated that the Bronco will be based on a modified Ranger chassis. However, the unnamed compact off-roader is believed to be based on something smaller.

There are also rumors that the two companies will be sharing powertrain portfolios in addition to this midsized SUV and the electric vehicle. It is expected that Mahindra will supply powertrains in order to help Ford with their product range with respect to EVs and other such vehicles.

As of now, both Ford and Mahindra have not announced the date of launch for both the SUVs and the EV. Furthermore, it is still unclear that the vehicles will be made available only in India, or will be offered in the international market too. Only time will answer all these questions. Nevertheless, the Indian users may expect that the SUVs and the EV developed under this collaboration will be built in accordance with the Indian market.