January 07, 2008

by Amrit Pal 

Till now the Aditya Birla Group is one of the major Indian business houses that has been credited with the successful operations in Thailand. Looks like The Tatas are trying to make up for the lost time with their flagship company Tata Motors planning its much-talked-about Rs 1-lakh car to be rolled out in Thailand. This is in addition to their earlier announcement to launch their pick-up trucks in Thailand by March 2008.

The company has submitted an application to Thailand’s Board of Investment (BoI) for an investment of around Rs 800-900 crore to assemble the Rs 1-lakh car in Thailand and also build a component hub around it.Tata Motors’ proposal is part of Thailand’s eco-car project, aimed at manufacturing smaller vehicles that are more fuel-efficient.

It makes perfect sense if the Tata Motors  uses the Rs 1-lakh car platform to build something that will be in sync with the Thai regulations for the eco-car. This will help the company to leverage its presence in Thailand to address other Asean markets. According to sources , this vehicle will be quite different from the one proposed for India in it that it will have added features like airbags and top-class interiors to impart a greater global feel. In addition, the car is expected to be a little more powerful at nearly 1,000 cc (the petrol version planned for India is a two-cylinder 624 cc model), with three cylinders.

Tata Motors, which operates in Thailand under a joint venture with Thonburi Assembly, won incentives from that country's Board of Investment last year to produce a redesigned pickup truck there. The project will produce 35,000 1-ton trucks a year, to be sold in the domestic market.

Thailand had called for auto companies to submit application to manufacture eco-cars in the country, the deadline for which ended on November 30. Besides Tata Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Mitsubishi have shown interest, while Honda, Suzuki and Nissan have already received approval for their eco-car plans.

Under Thailand government rules, to qualify as an eco-car, the vehicle must provide fuel economy of at least 20 km to a litre and emit no more than 120 gms of carbon dioxide per km. Also, each automaker needs to produce at least 1,00,000 units per year by its fifth year of operation. Going by the sops expected in the eco-car projects, the other auto majors have also lined up massive investment plans with an objective to use Thailand as an export base.

In the Auto Expo 2008 starting on 10th January , the Rs 1-lakh people’s car will be the star as the global media and nearly every automotive company under the sun participates in the biennial event. India’s growth story is hot. But India’s small car story is hotter. Which makes this year’s expo something more than the usual gawk fest.

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