Tata, India’s biggest carmaker, will be investing heavily into its manufacturing facilities now that it owns both Jaguar and Land Rover. At a press conference on Monday, Tata Managing Director Ravi Kant announced the company will invest $1.5 billion shortly on expanding build capacities, and plans to make sustained investments over the next four or five years.
This year promises to be an eventful one for Tata, as it will also begin selling the $2,500 Nano in its home market, according to Britain’s Autocar.
The investments are believed to be the result of Tata’s efforts to borrow money from nine banks, as reported earlier this month.
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03/31, 12:29 PM
posted by:
global_lightning
I wonder if they will build their Customer Help Line in the U.S.?
03/31, 12:41 PM
posted by:
injunraiv
LOL, that was going to be my comment!
03/31, 12:41 PM
posted by:
Vroom
LOL global lightning.
03/31, 12:50 PM
posted by:
JohnnyBlazE
lol why would they overpay a bunch of stupid American employees by setting up customer care in the US???
-Clarkson’s Sentiments
03/31, 1:05 PM
posted by:
BlackX
couldnt agree more JohnnyBlaze
03/31, 1:25 PM
posted by:
cookie4me
The Customer Help line in the US is not etched in stone. What is etched in stone is the fact there will be a bunch of overpaid stupid Brits out of a job once they get those factories in India cranking out XJ’s and Landrovers.
03/31, 2:10 PM
posted by:
Scarface03
I think cookie4me is jumping the gun. There’s no report regarding where Tata is investing the money, and we know the deal included existing manufacturing facilities.
I’m not saying that the Brits won’t eventually lose their jobs, but this announcement doesn’t mean the end is near.
What I find interesting is that the ink is still wet on the LR-Jag deal, and Tata is already announcing substantial capital investments.
How long has Cerberus had Chrysler? And what have they announced? Merging dealerships and cutting out model lines…. All potentially necessary, I’m sure, but definitely not the same kind of warm fuzzy the LR/Jag employees are feeling about Tata’s announcement.
03/31, 2:21 PM
posted by:
Need4SSpeed
With the way the manufacturing industry has lost its impact to the U.S economy and with the way the Big 3 are going and with all of the news of downsizing, I wouldn’t be surprised if 30-50 years down the road if Tata Motors becomes the world’s largest automotive manufacturer. By that time it could even surpass Toyota.
03/31, 5:09 PM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
Need4SS, think of it this way: Price-wise the Nano has a potential global market of about 3 billion people and no real competition, whereas every other manufacturer has a potential global market of maybe 900 million people who can actually afford their cars and a whole lot of compettition. If Tata starts shoveling Nanos out the door then can surpass a lot of manufacturers in a big hurry unit-wise, including Toyota and GM.
04/01, 5:33 AM
posted by:
JohnnyBlazE
The stupid brits aren’t overpaid, but the smart ones… you know, the ones who, I think, run more money through a square mile of London than any other square mile in the world…? They get paid enough, but we pay more for everything here too… So we take trips to the US to go shopping because the dollar is so weak…!
04/01, 7:50 AM
posted by:
DeansterTJ
Mayer Ray, I don’t think the Nano will go peerless in the future. How many articles came out on LLN over the last 2 months about GM and others looking at microcars in that same price range? After all, we’re talking about $2500 here, not $250. You can get a quality JApanese moped for that price, so it can’t be that hard to purchase a low-tech engine and wrap a ****ty shell around it with the rest of the money, + squeeze in a profit.
04/01, 10:42 AM
posted by:
Need4SSpeed
I hear you mayer_ray_nagin. Well we both agree on that possibility happenning. I just don’t think that it could more then a few decades down the road. With all this news of Tata acquiring LR and Jag and making all these capital investments they clearly appear to be setting up to expand their company. As an investor I’d be watching them closely because I think if they make the rights moves there could be big profits for Tata.
I agree with DeansterTJ as well in that the competition in this market won’t soley be limited to Tata. GM, Toyota, Nissan, and even BMW have all made the news about possibly entering the Microcar market. Tata is definitely one of the first, but they won’t be the last.
Also the Nano goes on sale in India this year. If they sell well in the first year and Tata starts offerring this car in foreign markets, Tata just needs the manufacturing capacity.