Indian car manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra said it signed a deal with Ford India to jointly develop and supply a midsize sports utility vehicles, the C-SUV.
As per the agreement, Ford and its affiliate companies will invest Rs 680 crores for the development of vehicles over a period of 10 years.
The number of SUVs to be supplied has not been disclosed.
Ford India Private Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company.
Headquartered in Chennai, it is currently the sixth largest car maker in India after Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda, Tata, and Mahindra.
The consolidated revenue of Ford India in the financial year 2017-18 was Rs 22,400 crores.
“C-SUV will have a common Mahindra product platform and powertrain, thus driving engineering and commercial efficiencies”, said Mahindra and Mahindra.
In March 2018, both the companies had signed five Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) to co-develop new mid-size and compact SUVs and electric vehicles.
Ford India and Mahindra had entered into a strategic alliance in 2017, under which both the players agreed to jointly develop sport-utility vehicles and electric variants.
Mahindra & Mahindra is the largest, home-grown maker of SUVs in India, and used to be the biggest, before it was dethroned by Maruti Suzuki last year.
It continues to have the biggest portfolio of SUVs in the country.
Prominent SUVs manufactured by Mahindra include XUV300, XUV500, Mahindra Scorpio, Thar, Bolero, Alturas G4 and TUV300.
Established in 1945, Mumbai-headquartered Mahindra and Mahindra is part of the Mahindra Group. It is one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in India by production and the largest manufacturer of tractors in the world.