Tata Motors Working On Global Products

Faisal Ali Khan
by Faisal Ali Khan

Tata Motors is one of the biggest and oldest vehicle manufacturers in India. The company has been building trucks and buses for a long time now. The first passenger vehicle from Tata Motors came in the 1990s and there has been no turning back since then. Tata Motors sells many vehicles in Europe, Asia and Africa, including the Indica Vista, Indigo Manza, Safari and Aria (pictured above). However, these products haven’t shaken the market so far.

We all are aware about Tata Motors’ acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover in 2008. While Tata Motors has been able to transform the balance sheet of JLR into the positive, the more important benefit for the Indian automaker is the pool of talent and technology it now has access to. Just recently, Tata Motors announced its plans to increase market share in India by bringing in world class global products. The company says their upcoming vehicles will shock the nation.

While details about Tata Motors’ upcoming vehicles are still very sketchy, rumors point to the next generation Defender (due in 2015) and next generation Safari sharing platforms. The next generation Nano is being developed keeping global markets in mind and will certainly go on sale in Europe and the States. The next generation Indica, Indigo and Aria will also be developed with global tastes in mind and could serve as an alternative to Hyundai and Skoda’s entry level cars in many markets.

Top Gear had tested the City Rover (Indica in the UK) a few years back and they had nothing positive to talk about. Do you think the next generation of Tata vehicles would find acceptance with European tastes? Have you driven a Tata vehicle?

Faisal Ali Khan is the editor of MotorBeam.com, a website covering the auto industry of India.

Faisal Ali Khan
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  • Dimwit Dimwit on Nov 05, 2012

    Tata will do what every other new entry does... sell on price. If they can get it low enough, it will sell, at least enough to get them into the market. With the JLR connection they have the resources to have a followup plan from that which is where most entry level marques make their mistake; Lada or Yugo anyone?

  • Tstag Tstag on Nov 05, 2012

    If JLR are essentially designing all of TATA's future cars then they should have no problem designing a car with appeal in western markets. TATA's purchase of JLR just keeps getting better for Mr Tata.

  • 1995 SC At least you can still get one. There isn't much for Ford folks to be happy about nowadays, but the existence of the Mustang and the fact that the lessons from back in the 90s when Ford tried to kill it and replace it with the then flavor of the day seem to have been learned (the only lessons they seem to remember) are a win not only for Ford folks but for car people in general. One day my Super Coupe will pop its headgaskets (I know it will...I read it on the Internet). I hope I will still be physically up to dropping the supercharged Terminator Cobra motor into it. in all seriousness, The Mustang is a.win for car guys.
  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
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