May use Fiat’s fgn network: Tata Motors

Tata Motors said it could consider selling its products in overseas markets.

Tata Motors said it could consider selling its products in overseas markets through the global distribution network of its Indian joint venture partner Fiat.

The company has a 50:50 joint venture with Italian carmaker Fiat,Fiat India Automobiles ,which has a production facility at Ranjangaon in Maharashtra with a capacity of two lakh cars and three lakh engines per annum. The two companies share the plant.

Under their agreement,the two firms also share distribution network in India and sell their products together under the same dealership.

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“Certainly at a point of time,we will explore the Fiat option,” Tata Motors Senior Vice-President (Commercial Passenger Car Business Unit) S Krishnan said when asked if the company would leverage the Italian firm’s global distribution network for selling Tata cars.

He,however,said the homegrown auto major has not firmed up plans to utilise its partner’s network abroad as Tata Motors is currently selling through its own distributors.

Currently,the auto makers sell their products jointly through 175 outlets across the country.

“The network is going to reach 183 dealers by the end of this month and it will be 200 by this year,” Fiat India President and CEO Rajeev Kapoor said.

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Fiat India launched a new diesel variant of its small car Grande Punto,priced at Rs 6.79 lakh (ex showroom Delhi). It is also planning to launch a new variant of its mid-sized sedan Linea by September as it aims to double sales during this fiscal to about 45,000 units.

“The launch of Grande Punto 90 HP multijet is testament to Fiat’s commitment to innovation and consumer satisfaction.

The car is aimed to consolidate our position within the ‘performance diesel’ segment,which has been relatively untapped until now,” Kapoor said.

The new variant will come with a 1.3 litre multijet engine and the company claimed that it will give a mileage of 20 km per litre.

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When asked about its planned small car,likely to be positioned below Punto,Kapoor said: “We are working on new small car for India and currently doing a market study. The target is to launch the car by 2012.”

He said the car is being developed at its in-house R&D centre and it will be a ‘made-in India’ car.

On its hatchback Palio,Kapoor said the company did not upgraded it to make it comply with Bharat Stage IV emission norms. “We don’t have aggressive plans for Palio. We are still deliberating on what to do with the car,but we are still selling the car.”