Tata Motors recently announced that they are still committed to their Fiat alliance, in spite of rumours that all is not well between them. The managing director of Tata Motors, Carl-Peter Forster, said that they will push the Fiat brand in the Indian market, so that it achieves more sales. They are currently looking forward to building their partnership.
Fiat and Tata Motors invested in a facility near Pune, at Ranjangaon for producing powertrains and cars. Apart from this, they also have an arrangement for joint retail, however, this not seem to be helping Fiat so far, which sells only around 2,000 models per month.
Tata makes use of Fiat’s 1.3l Multijet diesel engine in its cars. There are also reports that higher capacity engines could also be produced at their Ranjangaon plant. Fiat is also resting its hopes on a new compact model which is slated for launch in 2012, which is where their retail arrangement with Tata could help them.
Regarding Nano exports, which we reported a while ago, Forster said that this would not be easy, their company is looking for specific markets to export the Nano. New variants of the Nano would be released in India; however, the company is still tight-lipped regarding its diesel version launch. With the launch of a new diesel variant, the sales of Nano could rise significantly. The Nano currently sells 10,000 models a month.
Tata is focusing on smaller towns and cities, which have proved their importance to the auto industry. Forster said that their global strategy included that their JLR and Tata brands achieve specific geographic growth. The company has earmarked Rs.3,500 crore for this fiscal year, and will be putting more emphasis on their electric car programme, with the new Ace being the first product from this range.
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