Monday, October 09, 2017
By Kamal Swami
Mahindra & Mahindra To Acquire Ford’s Technology for EV’s
Going through the government’s efforts to encourage the use of electric vehicles in country domestic car maker Mahindra & Mahindra Limited has commenced talks with the U.S. base car maker Ford Motor Co. to share its platform of electric vehicles with the Indian car maker. In return of this platform the domestic car maker will share its technology of manufacturing cost effective electric vehicles with the American car maker which it will use for manufacturing the base variants of Aspire and Figo. The U.S. car maker has introduced Ka platform of manufacturing car like Figo and compact sedan Aspire.
In the joint statement given by both the companies on September 19, 2017 both the companies are looking forward to develop an alliance to strengthen each other’s position in dynamically changing scenario of international car market. According to the agreement both the companies will together in the field of mobility, electrification of vehicles, connected vehicle projects, assisting each other in exploring their reach in each other’s country and also in international market.
The alliance between both the groups will be beneficial to both the companies on equal terms. Where the Indian car maker will enjoy the benefits of Ford technology on the other side Ford will strengthen its roots in Indian car market which is believed to become the second largest passenger vehicle market throughout the world by 2026. With Ford’s support M&M will explore its activities in Russian and South African car market where its first preference would be introduction of electronic vehicles developed on the platform acquired from Ford.
From the sources of M&M, Mr. Pawan Goenka, M.D, M&M and his tead had visited the Ford’s production unit in September to understand the platform before signing the alliance with the car maker.
