Seoul: Tata Group is planning to produce hybrid versions of its Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, to join in the environment-friendly trend, its chairman said in an interview with a South Korean newspaper.
The Maeil Business Newspaper on Monday quoted Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, as saying in Mumbai that low-priced goods would create stronger demand than high-end products in India, and the so-called low-price revolution would continue across the world.
Tata Motors, India's biggest vehicle maker, saw the car industry's future lying in economic-friendly models, the daily said.
Ratan Tata did not elaborate on the possible launch of cheap hybrid versions.
The Nano, at about $2,000 per unit, was first delivered in India in July,
Tata said he was considering exporting Tata Motors' light truck, Ace, to South Korea, and also assembling or manufacturing the model in its South Korean plant.
For new growth businesses, he picked biotechnology and bioengineering, saying Tata was looking for ways to enter the nutrient-enriched food market.
He added the group was interested in Vietnam and evaluating the U.S. market, in which it has yet to make active investments.
The Tata group is also studying investments in automobiles, software and hotel businesses as well as bio fuel in South American markets such as Brazil and Argentina.
"India has been making most products required for
nuclear power generation, but heavy forgings were not on the
Indian product list. The JV is aimed at to ease this
constraint," NPCIL Chairman & Managing Director S K jain said.
On an average, it required 2-3,000 tonnes of forgings
in a plant.
A P Joshi, Additional Secretary, Department of Atomic
Energy, said that there was an absolute necessity to cut down
the delivery time if Indians were to reach the 2031-target.
"Supply of key inputs is very critical. Heavy forgings
is a very challenging issue as there are hardly a few
companies in the world who manufacture it," he said.
R G Kulkarni, Vice President (special steels and heavy
forgings), L&T said that the plant would make special steels
on its own from scraps and have facilities for making steel
and forgings in the same unit.
"With this JV, we are filling one important gap and
this is the most important," he said.
PTI