Tata Motors Reported To Take Over Ford India’s Sanand Plant

As per the recent media reports, Tata Motors has supposedly taken over the Ford Plant based in Sanand, Gujarat. Tata Motors has made no official announcement yet. The report proposes that Tata Motors gained the Gujarat based facility for a confidential amount. The American Giant Ford has suspended its retail and manufacturing operations in India since September last year.

Tata Motors is looking to invest an additional ₹2000 crore in the freshly gained facility. Tata plans to manufacture two lakh electric vehicles by 2026 at the Sanand factory. The brand won’t be laying off the existing Ford employees in the facility. This plant has opened employment to 23,000 people (directly/indirectly).

Tata already owns a facility in Sanand established to manufacture Tata Nano and it is just opposite the Ford plant. This plant serves as a construction nerve centre for EVs and diverse models like Tiago and Tigor. The automaker is developing 10,000 EVs per year at its current plant in Sanand, with a comprehensive production capacity of 1.5 lakh units per annum. It was one of the initial significant automakers to enter Sanand with an investment of ₹4500 crores to develop India’s highly economical car, Nano.

Tata Motors has requested concessions in land transfer rates and has proposed to pay 20% of the Jantri rate of the land, which is 66 crore. They have further urged for balance eligible incentives which were assured to Ford until 2030. The report also discloses that the state Government has given acknowledgement to these concessions.

Both Tata Motors and Ford submitted a consent proposal for transfer of ownership earlier this year. The high-powered committee recently met and gave a nod to this proposal and the concessions requested by Tata Motors as part of the deal. Tata Motors is presently the greatest EV producer in the country with two mass-market brands, Tigor EV and Nexon EV. In February this year, they sold 2,264 units of battery-powered vehicles. Recently, they featured an upcoming Coupe Electric SUV, Curvv Concept, which is thought to be on sale by 2024.