Ford Motors to re-enter Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin during a discussion with executives from Ford Motors in the United States earlier this week
| Photo Credit: X/@mkstalin

Three years after exiting Tamil Nadu, Ford Motors has now expressed interest to restart manufacturing at its Chennai plant. The company has submitted a Letter of Intent (LOI) to the State government, outlining its intention to utilise the plant.

Kay Hart, President, International Markets Group, Ford Motor Company, in a LinkedIn post, wrote: “I am pleased to share that today we are announcing that we have submitted a Letter of Intent (LOI) to the Government of Tamil Nadu in India, outlining Ford’s intention to utilize our Chennai plant for manufacturing for export.”

She further wrote that the decision follows multiple meetings with the Tamil Nadu government, including one earlier this week with Chief Minister M.K. Stalin as part of his visit to the United States.

“We appreciate their ongoing support as we have explored different options for the plant. This step underscores our ongoing commitment to India as we intend to leverage the manufacturing expertise available in Tamil Nadu to serve new global markets,” she wrote.

“I know people will be curious, but we will have more to share about the type of manufacturing and which export markets we’ll be focusing on, along with other details, in due course,” she said.

“For right now, I’m excited that this decision will add to our growing employee base in Chennai; our global Ford Business Solutions team based there is already more than 12,000 strong and we are planning to increase that by another 2,500 to 3,000 team members in the next few years. When you add that with our engine manufacturing team in Sanand and our ongoing customer and dealer support team, India is Ford’s second-largest employee base worldwide,” she noted.

Earlier this week, Mr. Stalin met the Ford team in the United States. Post the meeting, he posted a message on X (formerly Twitter) saying: “Had a very engaging discussion with the team from Ford Motors. Explored the feasibility of renewing Ford’s three-decade partnership with Tamil Nadu, to again make in Tamil Nadu for the world.”

In 2021, Ford decided to wind down its engine and vehicle assembling plant at Maraimalai Nagar near Chennai by the second quarter of 2022. At that point, the Chennai plant had around 2,600 employees.