Tata Motors in venture with South African company

Tata Africa and Tata Motors have announced a joint venture with South African company, Imperial Group, to market and distribute its pick-up vehicles in the region.

"It is expected that this will be a forerunner for more co-operation between the two organisations and will lead to high levels of customer satisfaction in the transportation industry," said Tata Motors' spokesperson in a press release.

The company which has had a presence in the African market for the last 30 years has just unveiled a range of passenger cars, utility vehicles, pick-ups, trucks and buses for the South African market.

The pick-ups, light trucks and buses will be available for sale in South Africa immediately, while the other products will be launched in the coming months.

Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group stressed the importance of Africa as a market for the Tata group, not only in the automobile sector, but in other areas where the group has interests.

The company is also in the fray for South African taxi project bid to supply 1.5 lakh mini buses.

Tata Motors has been shortlisted for the South African 'Taxi Recapitalisation Project'. The company has also started exporting trucks to Ukrain and has bagged orders to assemble 5,000 trucks annually in Russia.