Fiat and Tatas in small car, trucks pact; may help in Punjab Tractors acquisition

Mumbai: Italian automaker Fiat has said that it was looking at providing engineering and manufacturing support to its joint venture partner Tata Motors for its Rs1-lakh car to be produced from the Singur plant in West Bengal.

"We are looking at providing engineering and manufacturing support for the Tata small car project...We will offer our expertise," said Alfredo Altavilla, CEO, Fiat powertrain technologies and senior vice-president, Fiat Group Automobiles.

Tata's Rs1-lak car is expected to roll out by mid-2008 and Tata Motors has said the prototype is ready.

Ravi Kant, managing director, Tata Motors, had said, "Fiat has made an offer to be part of the Rs1-lakh projeact and we have accepted the offer and added we are looking what further can be done." Earlier last year, Tata Motors had entered into a joint venture with Fiat with an investment of Rs4,000 crore at Ranjangaon in Maharashtra to manufacture one lakh cars and two lakh engines annually.

Altavilla also added that Fiat would export its multijet 1.3-litre diesel engine and 1.2- and 1.4-litre gasoline engine to other western markets and also the localisation component in the engines would be around 80 per cent.