Why Ford stopped car manufacturing in India

It is interesting to see how the developed world auto brands such as General Motors (GM) and Ford have struggled to make it big in a volume-driven and evolving market such as India. The recent announcement by Ford to wrap up its manufacturing operations in India thereby bringing its current model line up to a grinding halt comes as no surprise. In fact, many saw this coming after the Ford-M&M partnership was called off earlier this year.  A microscopic view on why American brands such as GM and Ford have failed in India highlights the integral problem of their strategy – to go slow and focus on one product at a time, besides, a clear absence of a well-thought-out product, cost, and operational strategy – designed specifically for the Indian market.  “Both GM and Ford had put more emphasis on other global markets (such as China for instance) than on India, which impacted investment decisions, and subsequently new product development and introductions specifically for the Indian market. A lack of product updates and expansion is also why both automakers could not win over more buyers, especially when rivals were constantly introducing new vehicles and variants to keep buyers glued to their brands,” explains