Ford's shuttered India factories may be reborn in EV push

While it's difficult for US carmaking giants to make any meaningful inroads in India, EVs could offer another opportunity to take a shot in the market of 1.4 bn people

It’s been seven months since Ford decided to shut its factories in India, taking a $2 billion charge for the retreat. The decision was unsurprising: contrary to Ford’s expectation in 2012 that the nation’s burgeoning middle class would propel it to one of the company’s top three markets by 2020, its market share had slumped to less than 1.5% by the time it decided to pull the pin.

In between, Ford invested heavily in two factories near the southern and western coasts of India, manufacturing cars and SUVs for both the domestic market and export. But it racked up losses of