Tata Motors is planning to set up assembly facility for Tata Nano in Indonesia

RELATED ARTICLES Tata Motors down over 7%; m-cap slides by Rs 5,737 cr Tata Motors global sales remain flat at 87,377 units in April Fiat cuts India distribution tie with Tata Motors Tata Motors April sales decline 7%

and Eastern Europe, Ratan N Tata, chairman of Tata Motors and Tata group said.

“As far as Tata Nano is concerned, we are looking at setting up assembly facility in Indonesia and some parts of Eastern Europe,” Tata said while replying to shareholders queries at the 66th Annual General Meeting in Mumbai on Friday.

Tata further said that the company is looking to maximise the penetration of Nano in the international markets.

Tata Motors is also looking at assembly of some of its vehicles including one-tonne pick up Tata Ace, passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles in Latin America, Brazil, South-east Asia, especially Indonesia, and in some other countries, Tata said, adding, “Our plan is in fact to grow both in the neighbourhood and in some specific countries.”

Tata Motors has already started selling the Tata Nano in Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Tata also said that the company has displayed the concept of small electric car – Pixel at Geneva Motor Show in March this year and there may be electric version of Nano later.

According to media reports, Tata Motors is in talks with PT Astra International, Indonesia's leading automaker, and plans production of Tata Nano by 2013. Malaysia and Thailand had also expressed interest to woo Tata to set up a plant.

Tata Motors has exported 1,125 units of Tata Nano in April-July 2011 period. The sales of Tata Nano have gone up by over six per cent to 25,239 during the same period in the domestic market.

On the Tata Motors-Fiat 50:50 joint venture (JV), Tata said, “Yes, the JV is showing losses. The JV was set up certain assumptions. Those assumptions did not work out for volumes. So now Fiat and we are re-looking at contractual obligations to make the joint venture more realistic.”

“It will be done in course of time,” Tata added.

Tata had in the past said that he is not satisfied with Fiat sales in India. Sales of Fiat vehicles have declined by 19 per cent to 6,805 units between April and July this financial year.

Tata Motors distributes and market Fiat passenger cars - Grande Punto and Linea models through its dealership network across the country.

The company is also looking for a joint venture partner to assemble Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles in China, which is one of the emerging markets for Jaguar Land Rover. “We are looking at JV in China, which is mandatory as per Chinese government regulations. One of the party with whom we are talking to has license to operate in China,” Tata said. JLR sold 9,500 vehicles in China in the first quarter of this financial year, which is 15.3 per cent of global sales.