India's Tata Hopes to Sell Cars in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia March 25, 2005; The AP reported that India's largest carmaker, Tata Motors Ltd., is looking into selling passenger cars in Malaysia, the national news agency Bernama reported Friday.

The automaker already assembles and sells commercial trucks in Malaysia, but wants to expand sales to its passenger car line.

Initial market surveys in Malaysia have been positive and "we hope for something to materialize over next year," V. Sumantran, the executive director of Tata's passenger car business unit, was quoted as saying by Bernama.

The Malaysian market is well suited for the company's Indica hatchback and the Indigo sedan, as well as the Marina compact station wagon and the Safari four-wheel drive, Sumantran told Bernama in an interview during a recent visit to Malaysia.

The Indica and Indigo are made in both petrol and diesel versions.

"We always developed our cars to have both (versions), so we plan to bring in both but this will be guided by what the market research tells us and what we will initially focus on," he was quoted as saying.

Sumantran said Tata, India's most famous truck and bus maker before venturing into domestic car segment, was also evaluating whether to bring its cars to Malaysia as completely knocked down (CKU) or completely built up (CBU) units.

"For instance, when we entered South Africa, people told us that you can't go in without being a local assembler. But so far, we have been going on successfully in South Africa," he said.

Tata currently has a tie-up with local conglomerate DRB-Hicom, which assembles the Indian company's commercial trucks here.

Asked whether it would be difficult to enter the Malaysian market due to its high taxes on imported cars, Sumantran said: "At the end of the day, in business you have to take what is given and make the best out of it."

Tata vehicles are exported to more than 70 countries in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and Australia. Besides Malaysia, Tata has assembly operations in Bangladesh, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt. It has also tie-ups with, among others, MG Rover where the European-oriented Indica is being sold in its market as City Rover.