Melvin Durai
Ford Motor Company recently announced it was leaving India, bidding farewell to all the drivers it had hoped to attract with cars such as the Aspire, Endeavor and Freestyle.
No need to aspire and venture into the competitive waters of India anymore: Ford is freestyle outside the country.
The company will close its factories in Sanand and Chennai, laying off around 4,000 employees. Hopefully each of them will receive an Aspire or Endeavor as a farewell gift, but maybe they would rather have a Maruti.
Hormazd Sorabjee, editor-in-chief of Autocar India, believes Ford failed to understand the Indian psyche and recklessly spent money. The company has reportedly invested around $ 1 billion in the Sanand plant, which it opened in 2015.
“It’s built like a Taj Mahal,” Sorabjee told CNN. “Western manufacturers just don’t think frugal.”
It may be built like a Taj Mahal, but unfortunately Ford couldn’t make any money from the tourists. All he could do was make cars that were too expensive for most car buyers. The Aspire and Freestyle cost twice as much as the Maruti Alto 800, but aren’t twice as envious of the neighbors.
After 25 years in India, Ford has only managed to capture 2 percent of auto sales in India, far behind Maruti Suzuki’s 45 percent market share and Hyundai’s 17 percent market share.
“Despite significant investments in India, Ford has accumulated more than $ 2 billion in operating losses over the past 10 years and the demand for new vehicles has been much lower than expected,” Jim Farley told CNN, CEO of Ford.
The automotive market in India is not growing as fast as the automakers had hoped. Annual sales were once estimated at 5 million cars, but have remained at around 3 million, and the growth rate has jumped from 12 percent ten years ago to 3.6 percent today, according to Reuters.
If you live in a big city and have to travel on already congested roads, you’re probably happy that auto sales are increasing at a slow pace.
Driving in Mumbai, for example, is stressful enough without having more cars on the roads. According to a recent survey by UK car-sharing company Hiyacar, Mumbai is the most stressful city in the world for driving.
Paris is second, Jakarta third, Delhi fourth and New York fifth. Of these five cities, the only one I’ve driven in is New York. It was quite stressful for me, in part due to all the drivers trying to pass me on both sides of the road, some of them signaling their intentions with their middle fingers.
As for Mumbai, I watched videos of people driving around the city. If ever I needed to travel by car to Mumbai, I would hire not only a driver but also a doctor. The doctor would monitor my vital signs, make sure I didn’t have a heart attack. Given the congestion on the city’s roads, it makes sense that many Indians prefer small cars. Not only do they take up less space, they consume less fuel and produce less pollution. Most importantly, they cost a lot less than the cars Ford is trying to sell.
While a car is often seen as a symbol of success, I see it primarily as a mode of transportation. It’s good to have luxurious features in your car, but you have to pay extra for them, and it’s not always a wise investment, given that cars usually don’t appreciate in value – they depreciate. .
If you can afford a luxury car, good for you. But don’t expect to get to your destination faster than your friend driving a Maruti Alto 800.
