The internet has gone berserk after the news of Ford filing a patent for the all-new Endeavour broke cover. It is reported that Ford has filed a design patent for the third-generation Ford Endeavour in India, which made its global debut in 2022 but never arrived here as Ford halted vehicle production in India in 2021. However, the recent patent filing of the new Endeavour in India indicates that Ford is considering restarting sales operations in India with the large SUV.
Adding fuel to the fire, Ford has listed a few new job openings in locations such as Chennai, according to ACI. With most job openings being technical ones, it is believed that Ford is looking for options to resume vehicle assembly at its Chennai factory. While Ford did manage to sell its Sanand plant to Tata Motors in 2022, the Chennai facility has yet to find buyers despite the automaker’s repeated attempts to push the sale through. There were rumours that carmakers such as MG, VinFast and Tata Motors approached Ford to take over this plant, but nothing has fructified yet. In fact, the deal with MG just fell through, and this is said to have spurred Ford into dumping the sale.
If the job openings for its manufacturing facility in Chennai indeed work out, Ford may resume vehicle production at the plant after a gap of nearly three years. Ford suspended vehicle manufacturing and sales in India in 2021 after reporting losses of over $2 billion since it started operations in India in 1996. At that time though, Ford did emphasize that it is not quitting India, but only restructuring its business operations, which included the abolition of its then vehicle lineup, which included models like Figo, Aspire, Freestyle, Ecosport and second-generation Endeavour.
Meanwhile, if the restart reports are true, Ford will make a comeback to the Indian car market with the all-new third-generation Endeavour sometime in 2025. Ford might also be looking at assembling the Endeavour at the facility. Local assembly is highly likely as Ford recently decided not to continue with the decision of conducting talks with JSW for trading off the facility.
It is also possible that Ford might evaluate the CBU route and import the Endeavour from Thailand, which will not require homologation for 2,500 units per year. If this happens, the Endeavour might be significantly more expensive than before, but could still be in the ballpark of higher variants of its main rival Toyota Fortuner, whose prices have absurdly shot up post the discontinuation of second-generation Endeavour in 2021.
Making it’s global debut in 2022, the third-generation Ford Endeavour looks more muscular and premium than ever before, with more new features including a full-TFT instrument console, wireless charger, ventilated front seats, larger portrait infotainment screen and ADAS. Globally, the Ford Endeavour is now available with choices of 2.0-litre single-turbo and twin-turbo diesel engines and even a 3.0-litre V6 diesel. However, if the Endeavour comes to India again, expect it to get the 2.0-litre twin-turbo diesel engine, paired to an automatic gearbox as standard.
Source link
#Rumours #Resuming #Production #India #Spark #Excitement
