Ford-Mahindra Joint Venture Called Off To Continue India Operations Independently

• Reasons attributed to fundamental changes in global economic and business conditions caused in part by the COVID-19 global pandemic over the past 15 months.

• The joint venture was announced back in October 2019.

• Expected products include an XUV500-based Ford SUV, a rebadged Marazzo and a Mahindra-badged Aspire electric sedan.

2021 has started off with a massive bombshell from has been called off. The two companies claim the reason behind this abrupt halt is the fundamental changes in global economic and business conditions caused in part by the COVID-19 global pandemic over the past 15 months. This has caused the two companies to reassess their respective capital allocation priorities.

Back when the new Ford-Mahindra JV was announced in October 2019, it was stipulated that Mahindra would hold a 51 percent controlling stake while Ford India would be a 49 percent stakeholder. This split is a major blow to the variety of plans under this JV as upto seven new models were in the pipeline.

Some of them included Ford's iteration of the upcoming second-gen EV. It remains to be seen whether these products are still on track or shelved.

As things stand, the two carmakers will continue with their operations in India independently. But this decision is quite a bummer as the joint venture had a roadmap full of enticing models we were looking forward to.