Tata Motors’ Thai unit has received the government’s green light to start building 35,000 pickup trucks each year.
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Thailand’s Board of Investment (BoI) approved the 1.3bn baht ($43.4m) 70:30 joint venture between Tata Motors of India and Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant to build 35,000 one-ton pickup trucks per year in Samut Prakan, the Bangkok Post reported.
The trucks will have 54% local content, worth 3.91bn baht per year, including engine parts, steering systems, bodies and suspension systems, and 80% will be sold in Thailand, creating 482 new jobs, the report said.
The Tata-brand vehicles will be the first pickups assembled at Thonburi’s plant which has previously built various Mercedes-Benz models.
An industry source told the Bangkok Post the Tata truck had an estimated price of 400,000 to 500,000 baht, lower than the 600,000 to 1m baht of rivals.
Thailand is already a production centre for Japanese-designed light pickup trucks sold outside North America. Mitsubishi and Toyota have export-oriented factories in the country and the Ford/Mazda joint venture plant has just celebrated building its millonth unit.
