Mumbai: Tata Motors Ltd, Chairman Ratan Tata's dream project Rs 1 lakh car which is likely to be launched in 2007-08 will run on batteries provided by Exide industries.
"We have presented our designs to Tata Motors and have got a favourable response from them," said S K Mittal, Director, Research and Development, Exide Industries.
He said that the lead-acid battery for the Rs 1 lakh car would be small in size and cost competitive.
"The small car battery will be technologically advanced and could be made on a massive scale to get better economies of scale," he added.
Mittal said that Exide Industries was carrying out research to make more powerful and yet compact, light weight, high performance and leak resistant batteries that would be suitable for the low-end cars.
Targeting a potential market between motorcycles and Maruti-Suzuki’s low end cars, the Tata Motors Ltd is planning to launch a car that will cost less than Rs 1 lakh.
The company is expected to manufacture around one million such cars per year.
Tata Motors also plans to create a new platform to manufacture trucks called the 'world truck project'. It will utilise the latest technologies available with the Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company (TDCV) of South Korea and Hispano of Spain.
The global truck is likely to be ready for production by 2008-09.
Exide would also provide battery for the Tata Motors world truck project.
Mittal said that the battery for the global truck would be contemporary to world standards.
Exide commands a 33 per cent market share in the overall domestic auto battery market, 90 per cent share in the automotive original equipment market and 50 per cent share in the industrial battery market.
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