Tata Motors is turning to China to buy parts unavailable in India as it seeks to offer vehicles with automatic transmission at home, chairman Ratan Tata has said.
The automaker may benefit from “unbelievable” prices at Chinese component makers, Tata, who will step down as head of the company in December, told Economic Times of India (ETI). The company will buy “sub-assemblies” including automatic transmissions from China, he said.
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“Sourcing from China would be the only way forward for Tata given that an Indian supplier may not be willing to build something like an automatic transmission unless the volumes were high enough,” Deepesh Rathore, managing director of IHS Automotive in India, told ETI.
Tata Motors doesn’t produce any automatic transmission vehicles while Maruti Suzuki offers five automatic variants of the 15 it sells. Hyundai Motor, the country’s second-largest carmaker, offers the option on most of its eight models.
China’s overpowering economic strength is not a real concern but a way should be found by India to be an ally with it, Ratan Tata said. Describing the India-China relationship as “not adversarial, but it is not the best”, he, however, added, “you know China has never done anything adversarial to India, and India, I think, has been more concerned about China’s economic strength overpowering India, which we really don’t see”.
When asked if he was worried about China, he said: “No, I am not worried. I wish we could find a way to be allies with China.”
