Ford is going to restart production at its factory located in Maraimalai Nagar, Chennai from June 2026.
Ford’s models like EcoSport and Endeavor have been quite popular in the Indian market, although in September 2021, the company had announced to stop production and sale of cars in India due to increasing losses. Along with this, the production of popular models like EcoSport, Endeavor and Figo was also stopped.
However, the company had then clearly stated that India would continue to play an important role in its global business and engineering plans. Now the news is that the company is going to restart its Chennai manufacturing plant located in Maraimalai Nagar, Tamil Nadu by the middle of this year. This is the same factory, which was closed after Ford’s exit from India in 2021.
However, this time the purpose of Ford’s comeback will not be to sell cars in the Indian market. Instead, this plant will now be used to make next-generation engines, which will be specifically for export markets. According to reports, in future some models like Everest SUV (known as Endeavor in India) can also be exported from here.
Before this decision, Ford has entered into an agreement with the Tamil Nadu government. This agreement has been completed almost a year after the Letter of Intent given in September 2024. Now the company is preparing to upgrade the Chennai plant to make modern engines and power systems. When this plant becomes fully operational, it will have an annual production capacity of approximately 2.35 lakh engines.
Ford is planning to initially invest around Rs 3,250 crore in this project. This investment is expected to create around 600 new jobs, which will greatly benefit the local manufacturing and automobile ecosystem. It is worth noting that despite stopping car sales in India, Ford has not completely ended its presence in the country.
The company has been exporting powertrains from the Sanand plant in Gujarat, which is currently taken on lease from Tata Motors. Even though Ford’s return to car sales in the Indian market may not seem possible in the near future, the reopening of the Chennai plant proves that India will remain an important export and engineering hub for Ford.