Tata Motors seen roping in Proton for Nano ride in Malaysia

Tata Motors has expressed interest in working with Malaysian car company Proton to sell the Nano in that country, according to reports in Malaysian media.

On its part, Malaysia may use Tata’s expertise in developing a low-cost car for its own domestic market.

Malaysian newspaper The Star on Friday said Ratan Tata’s intention to partner Proton was conveyed to Malaysian deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin during a meeting in Mumbai.

Muhyiddin reportedly saw the Nano and said it could even be Malaysia’s very own “kereta rakyat” (people’s car).

“Tata had actually proposed to work with Proton about seven years ago and he has reiterated this again. It’s now up to the Proton management to study this proposal and whether a car like the Nano can be brought into Malaysia. Perhaps we can also come up with a kereta rakyat costing about Malaysian ringitt 20,000, modelled after the Nano. However, this needs more detailed studies. We have suggested to Tata to bring a technical team to hold further discussions with Proton and even Perodua,” Muhyiddin told Malaysian reporters in Mumbai.

Interestingly, Proton, a state-owned loss making car maker, has been circling India for years now and has tried several partnerships, but all in vain. Earlier, it had come to some understanding with Argentum Motors (promoted by B V R Subbu) to contract manufacture its cars here, but the talks fell through though Subbu himself joined the Proton board of directors.

Talks have also been held by the company at various stages with the Hero Group and Mahindra & Mahindra besides others for Proton’s entry into India.

A Tata Motors spokesperson declined comment on the development.

The spokesperson also declined to comment on Tata Motors commencing Nano exports to markets such as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Africa later this year. He merely said that several innovative marketing tools have been employed to sell the Nano.
  
So the world’s cheapest car is now being sold across special Nano access points (an extension of dealerships), authorised service centres and even through discount retail chain Big Bazaar.

Since January, the company has begun ramping up production of the car to 300 Nanos a day as against 200 a day in December. The company had planned to take monthly production to 15,000 units by March, though the spokesperson declined to confirm this. In all of 2010, the highest ever production in a month stood at 7,739 units, in August, which means the company intended to almost double this number in just three months.