Saturday, August 14, 2010

India's Tata looks to Fiat to help it boost global truck business

MUMBAI (Reuters) -- India's Tata Motors Ltd., bolstered by a turnaround at its luxury Jaguar and Land Rover brands and a surge in demand at home, is looking to expand its commercial vehicles business, its top executive said on Thursday.The company sees strong potential for the global truck business and is exploring synergies with partner Fiat S.p.A., Tata Motors CEO Carl-Peter Forster told reporters. Tata Motors currently has a joint venture to sell Fiat-brand cars such as the Linea, Grande Punto and Palio in India.
The firm is also looking to build a plant in India to manufacture small trucks."In commercial vehicles, we are a dominant player in India. Tata has all the ingredients to be and it is our ambition to be a big player globally," Foster said.Forster, 55, who joined Tata from General Motors Europe earlier this year, said new products from the company's JLR luxury brands were being well received. The company now plans to come up with a modern-day Land Rover Defender.Earlier this week, Tata Motors, India's leading vehicle maker with about two-thirds of the Indian market, swept past forecasts with a fourth-straight quarterly profit, driven by demand for JLR. The results boosted its shares to their highest in at least two decades.Tata's results come amid a surge in demand for cars, trucks and buses in India. New-car sales in India hit a record high in July, jumping 38 percent from a year earlier, boosted by the launch of new models and the strong economy. Tata makes utility vehicles such as the Safari, Magic and Winger and cars such as the ultra-cheap Nano, Indica and the Indigo Manza premium sedan.

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