US auto major Ford has shelved plans to manufacture electric vehicles in India for exports despite getting approval from the government for production-linked incentives.

 The company, which in September last year had announced that it would stop vehicle production at its two plants in the country as part of a restructuring exercise, said it is exploring other alternatives for its manufacturing facilities at Chennai and Sanand in Gujarat.

 As part of the ongoing business restructuring in India, Ford has continued to explore possible alternatives for its manufacturing facilities. This included applying for the production-linked incentives scheme, which allowed us to explore utilising one of the plants as a potential EV manufacturing base, a Ford India spokesperson said.

 "After careful review, we have decided to no longer pursue EV manufacturing for exports from any of the Indian plants.

We remain grateful to the government for approving our proposal under the Production-Linked Incentives and for being supportive while we continued our exploration," the spokesperson added.

Ford was among the 20 automotive firms, along with the likes of Tata Motors, Suzuki, Hyundai, Kia and Mahindra & Mahindra, that got approval for the Rs 25,938 crore Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the automobile industry in February this year.

On the future of the company's two plants, the spokesperson said, "Ford India's previously announced business restructuring continues as planned, including exploring other alternatives for our manufacturing facilities. We continue to work closely with unions and other stakeholders to deliver an equitable and balanced plan to mitigate the impacts of restructuring."