The Mahindra group and Ford Motor Company on Wednesday strengthened their current strategic alliance by signing two agreements on powertrain sharing and connected car solutions.

Both the companies had announced their first strategic alliance in September last year and it was followed by the signing of five memoranda of understanding in March.

Under the pact on powertrain sharing, the Mahindra group will develop and supply a low-displacement petrol engine to Ford India for its present and future vehicles. The BS-VI compliant powertrain is expected to help Ford extend and strengthen its existing offering of petrol engines.

Further, in order to co-develop a suite of connected car solutions, the duo announced the joint development of a telematics (a system in the vehicle that controls it and provides other functions) control unit. Once developed, the connected vehicle solution will be deployed across both Mahindra and Ford vehicles.

“Today’s announcement builds on commitments made so far, leading to a fruition of new opportunities. We are confident to meet customer expectations by working together on a number of development areas,” M&M managing director Pawan Goenka said.

“We are pleased with the progress our teams have made since we announced our strategic alliance with the Mahindra group a year ago,” Jim Farley, Ford executive vice-president and president of global markets, said.