In the process of finalising the concept of its peoples' car, Tata group chairman Ratan Tata today said it would take more than three years for them to produce their much-talked about Rs one lakh car. While auto leader Maruti is sceptical about the feasibility of such a vehicle, Tata feels his company's new car, aimed at at-tracting a two-wheeler customer, would be slightly bigger than the Maruti 800 and would meet all the safety standards required here.
To a question about the deadline, Ratan Tata said that "once all these things (concept of structure, material and power train— the building blocks) are in place, it will take toolings and a manufacturing plant, and so on. Usually, it is a three-year period." On whether this schedule could be crunched, he said "yeah. But I would say it is a three-year period from that."
Suzuki Motor Corporation, the majority holder in Maruti, had earlier said it may not be possible to produce a car in this price range but would be ready with a matcher in case their monopoly at the entry level car was threatened. On whether India was becoming a small car hub. Tata felt Maruti and Hyundai were manufacturing proven products in the country from processed know-how that has come from elsewhere.
Stating that the foreign companies were not taking people from India to their design offices, he said "it leads me to believe 'they have no plans to move in this direction." Tata said India could become a major centre for manufacturing only if it has one of the major engines designed fully here, and then follow it up and manufacture it "Unless that were to happen, you would only be doing engineering for some other location," he said.
The Tata group chairman had a word of praise for the Indian two-wheeler industry which, he said had achieved almost global scales because the business was on a global basis.
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