Photo: Jim Farley
As Ford works towards expanding its electric vehicle (EV) to new markets, a new report shows that the U.S. automaker may work with the Indian government on exporting vehicles from the country.
Ford is looking to use one of its India production facilities to export EVs, after the company’s incentive proposal was approved by the government, according to Reuters.
The news came in a statement on Friday, after Ford officially pulled its sales out of India’s domestic market last year — although the automaker still has two factories in the country.
Ford said in a statement to Reuters it was “exploring the possibility of using a plant in India as an export base for EV manufacturing.”
As for selling electric vehicles in India? Ford said, “there have been no specific discussions on this right now, but it is not out of the realm of future consideration”.
The Indian government awarded Ford’s proposal from its $3.5 billion investment plan for clean vehicle manufacturing subsidies.
The news also comes just weeks after Ford rival and EV giant Tesla said discussions about establishing a manufacturing plant in India had hit a “weird stalemate situation” with the government.
Earlier this month, India officially denied Tesla’s proposed tax breaks on imported EVs, encouraging the company to manufacture things locally instead of importing certain hardware for production.
Ford began delivering its first Mustang Mach-E units in China in December.
A report from earlier this week also shows that Ford is doing talks with China’s CATL to supply EV batteries to the automaker’s Ontario, Canada manufacturing plant.
