Ford Partners With Mahindra For Electric Aspire, To Launch Next Year
The partnership of Ford and India’s Mahindra & Mahindra on electric mobility will reportedly deliver its first car next year — the electric Aspire.
Indian media house Times News Network has reported that the electric Ford Aspire is expected to be launched next year from the stable of a partnership between Ford Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra. The two automakers announced a partnership on electric mobility in September 2017. 
Ford Aspire is already a popular compact sedan in the Indian market and competes with Maruti Suzuki’s Dzire, Honda’s Amaze, and Hyundai’s Xcent. The electric Aspire is expected to be slightly longer than its petrol/diesel variant.
The electric Aspire seems a win-win for both the companies. Mahindra, while leading in electric mobility technology, has been unable to launch any popular products in the small to medium segments. It secured an order for 150 electric sedans from Energy Efficiency Services Limited. The company supplied the electric variant of its Verito sedan which has a negligible share in the Indian market. So it desperately needed a popular model to push for dominance in the passenger electric mobility segment.
Ford, on the other hand, has failed to compete aggressively with the likes of Maruti Suzuki, Honda, and Hyundai. The only segment where Ford has managed to grab market share is the compact SUV segment — with its EcoSport model.
Now, Ford & Mahindra are also partnering to launch an electric SUV. No model in this segment is currently available in India. The companies are expected to jointly develop a platform and then implement their own designs to come out with products aligned with their respectively philosophies.
Ford had earlier announced plans to invest $11 billion in the electric mobility business with a target to launch 16 electric and 24 hybrid vehicles by 2022. Mahindra, too, has announced plans to invest several million dollars to launch new products and boost production.
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