Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata is becoming increasingly frustrated at the relative lack of success with the company’s 4-year-old joint venture with Fiat according to a report in The Hindustan Times.
The newspaper has learned the chairman believes the joint venture needs to be critically examined and that the Italian car maker needs to launch more models in India.
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In a recent interview given to JD Power, Tata said the potential for growth within the joint venture remained good, adding: “I have to admit that so far, the venture with Fiat has not been as active as we had thought.
“I think that Fiat has to launch more models to keep dealers interested. It also has to look at its cost structure in terms of parts and components. The JV needs to be looked at critically and until that happens, it’s not going to be optimised.”
The Hindustan Times reported the joint venture, Fiat India Automotive was formed, in 2007 but the JV has been struggling since then. While the Indian passenger car industry surged 30% to clock 2m units in the last fiscal year, Fiat’s sales dropped 15% to 21,066 units.
Tata added: “As far as what else we can do with Fiat, I think Sergio Marchionne and I can really talk to each other.
“However, at the working level, it hasn’t quite been that way. We have looked at Latin America to do something together, but things haven’t moved as they should have done.”
