The unveiling of the `world's cheapest car', on January 10, 2008 at the Indian Auto Show had made debates come alive with issues relating to its quality, safety and global marketability. The vast and still expanding international market of small cars has given rise to an overwhelming demand for Nano. To explore this opportunity, Tata Motors has planned to give licensed manufacturing a try with Nano and to introduce its redesigned version for the US and European markets to eventually expand into the southeast Asian and African markets.

The 140-year old India's largest business conglomerate, that started its voyage with a textile mill by an young trader from India's Parsi minority, have come a long way. That its founder Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata had envisioned to bring together technology and money from around the world even as early as 1868, had stayed on as an heirloom with the empire.

As an acknowledgment to that vision, Tata Group's automobile venture Tata Motors established in 1945 (previously known as Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company) has done more than a fair job to spread its wings globally. As the first company from India's engineering sector to be listed with the New York Stock Exchange in 2004, Tata Motors' international reach and acceptability have become an uncontested fact over the passage of time (Exhibit II).

As a leader in commercial vehicles in India (in each segment) and second largest in the passenger vehicles market, Tata Motors has been persistent to follow the objective of placing their four-wheeled wonders for the global market (Exhibit III). Europe, Africa, Middle East, Australia, South East Asia and South Asia are some of the regions where commercial and passenger vehicles of Tata Motors has made inroads. Tata Motors has also established substantial market share in Nepal, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Spain, Italy and South Africa (Exhibit IV). Moreover, the organization boasts of an array of assembly operations in Malaysia, Kenya, Bangladesh, Spain, Ukraine, Russia and Senegal.

The year 2006-07 had been a year of several achievements for the company. During the period, Tata Motors outperformed the other players in the industry and recorded the highest ever sales of 5,80,280 vehicles, recording a growth of 28% (Exhibit V). This was achieved despite a hike in consumer interest rates, rising fuel prices and tightening of liquidity position. A significant growth was observed in both the commercial and passenger vehicle segments of the company. Tata Motor's utility vehicle segment sales grew by 26.3% while Tata Safari sales grew by 237% and the Tata Indica sales grew by about 31%.

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