The mighty successful Ford Raptor (in the international market) was recently spied in India. Ford has been in the news for a few months now, after it has filed for patents for Endeavour, Ranger, Mach-E, Territory and Equator in our market. Remember Ford quit manufacturing cars in India back in September 2021 citing losses worth a whopping $2 billion over the 25 years of being operational in India. However, its new cars have been spotted on the Indian roads recently. Add to this the job listing it advertised on LinkedIn for an R&D position at its Chennai facility. It is becoming evident that the American carmaker is eyeing an iconic comeback.
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Ford Raptor Spied in India
This latest post comes from autojournal_india on Instagram. It captures the video clip of the Ford Raptor pickup truck plying on the road. Someone driving behind it recorded the entire visuals. However, I believe this is not related to Ford performing road tests in India. Rather, it could be a regular imported pickup truck by an individual. It is not under camouflage or doesn’t have any signs of it being a test mule. This leads us to believe that someone imported it into India personally. In any case, the road presence is undeniably imposing.
In fact, we see it driving right next to regular cars. It certainly towers over them with authority. If Ford were to launch it in India, it would rival the likes of the Toyota Hilux and Isuzu V-Cross. I must also mention that it is not uncommon for people to import luxury cars to India without attractive astronomical import duties. This is done via the ATA Carnet route where a car is allowed to be imported to India for a period of 1 year without actually paying the high taxes. But since there is no number plate on this Ford Raptor, we are not sure of its origins. In any case, it gives us an excuse to see how many heads it turns on the roads, prior to officially being available for sale.
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Author’s Note
I am quite thrilled to witness the upcoming turn of events after the frenzy that has been created by the news of Ford making a comeback to India. I am also certain that if the American giant comes to our shores again, it will focus on profitability after its last stint. Furthermore, it will also strategize to set up a base for EV technology development in India. It is also something it announced officially and is hiring for. We must not forget it still owns the manufacturing plant in Chennai. It has a capacity of producing 150,000-200,000 cars and 350,000 engines annually. Let us see how things pan out in this regard going forward.
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