Mumbai: Tata Motors has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with British car assembling firm Stadco that will offer a low cost body systems design for Tata Autocomp Systems? (TACO) small car.
The car, which will be launched in 2008, is still cloaked in secrecy but TACO has acknowledged that Stadco will make the basic sub structure of the car that is the Body-in-White.
Apart from providing its expertise in body-in-white engineering and manufacturing to TACO, Stadco will also tap the highly skilled, low cost Indian advantage for its customers abroad.
If UK-based Stadco is pitching in with design, TACO?s own plastics division?s radical technology aims to replace a steel door with plastic. A German firm is offering technology that could replace steel with fibre thermoplastic.
Joint Venture
The first phase of the joint venture will be the establishment of a product engineering centre in Pune.
The centre will focus on providing European technology and know-how to Indian vehicle makers seeking to develop new products.
However the amount that will be invested in the centre has not yet been decided.
Says Managing Director TACO, DS Gupta, ?The amount of investment into the manufacturing centre depends on the number of cars that are going to be rolled out annually. The more the production capacity the higher the investment.?
Tata Motors indicated recently that the small car might have a cumulative production capacity of 10 lakh units annually.
Tata?s engineers who have to exercise extreme caution while planning the body and designing the engine design to make sure that the care can hit the market at the low cost of Rs One lakh.
TACO?s small car project is expected to bring about many innovations in engineering and manufacturing.
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