Tata Motors plans to assemble more models of the brand Land Rover in India, according to Ratan Tata, company chairman as he addressed shareholders in their Annual Report 2010-11.
While he did not give further details about plans for producing local Jaguar, the assembling of their first Land Rover product, the Freelander was started early in the year at their Pune facility.
The manufacturer is also evaluating their options for common engine making plants in the UK and India, with their subsidiary brand Jaguar Land Rover. Joint productions of their products would give the company an important cost advantage.
Tata also said that they are also considering assembling other Land Rover models. For optimising synergetic strengths between Tata Motors and JLR in India, they have an examination underway on developing a joint engine programme having manufacturing plants in both India and UK. They are also considering localisation and assembly of their select models in China.
They also plan undertaking many initiatives for revitalizing their dealer network, along with improving their market share. This is for countering their market share decline in the passenger car market, which decreased by 0.7% in 2010-11. In the last fiscal year, the car sales of the company increased by 23%, lesser in comparison the 30% industry growth of 24.66 lakh vehicles sold.
Tata warned speaking on the growing concerns in macro economics of a slowdown in the economy in Asia because of the adopted anti-inflation measures my growing economies like India and China, and the Japanese earthquake and tsunami natural disaster.
He said that the resulting hike in interest rates, hike in fuel costs and tighter credit would dampen the consumer demand for a variety of products including vehicles.
Tata, who also heads the Tata Group that comprises everything from software to salt, said that though auto sales have started slowing down in the Indian auto market, China – the largest auto market in the world also witnessed their first sales decrease since two years.
He added that quarterly growth in Asia has been decreasing throughout the year, with India and China, both expected to register decrease in growth figures for 2011-12 fiscal. Due to this, there is also the possibility of an overall slowdown in Asia’s industrial activity, in comparison to growth figures achieved in the past couple of years, along with a possible dip in demand for services and goods. He also hoped for a realistic balance to be achieved by Asian countries.