Tata Motors in parleys with Rover on diesel Indica exports

Tata Motors and MG Rover are talking on exporting the diesel version of the Indica "" known as the City Rover in the UK. The Rover team, which arrived in Mumbai last week, is still holding discussions with Tata Motors.

"We have already begun shipments of the diesel Indica to the UK and are selling them through our Tata Motors sales network in the country. We are discussing the possibility (of exporting the diesel version) with Rover but I can't comment on when exports will commence," said V Sumantran, executive director, passenger car business unit of Tata Motors.

At the City Rover roll-out in November 2003 Kevin Howe, chief executive, MG Rover, told Business Standard: "There is a growing market for diesel cars in Europe but that excludes low-powered engines. We are currently discussing the suitability of the 70PS diesel engine for the CityRover. We will wait to see how the petrol version of the car does before we make any other decision."

The discussions may also include a price revision for the City Rover and loading up the car with more features.

According to the last available reports, Rover sold around 4,800 units of the City in the October 2003-July 2004 period.

MG Rover and Tata Motors have signed a five-year deal for the export of 100,000 City Rovers over the period or an average of 20,000 Indica cars a year.

Tata Motors has shipped around 7,000 units of the city rover to UK so far. Though shipments began in November 2003, there was a lull period in the last few months when Tata Motors stopped exports so it could meet the demand for its cars in the domestic market.

The City Rover faces stiff competition in the super mini segment from cars like the Fiat Panda, Toyota Yaris, Daihatsu Charade and Skoda Fabia. At pound sterling 6495-8895, the City Rover is slightly steeper than the Fiat Panda (pound sterling 6295-8895).