Tata Eyes Proton Tie up

Indian automotive giant Tata has expressed its interest in working with Malaysian car maker Proton, including selling its world-cheapest Tata Nano in Malaysia.

The message was conveyed to Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin by Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata during a meeting in Mumbai.

Muhyiddin, who had a look at the Nano after the meeting, told reporters that the US$3,000 car, touted as the cheapest in the world, 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 20,000 ringgit ($6,589), 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,” he told Malaysian reporters covering his five-day official visit to India.
Muhyiddin said that Tata himself would be coming to Malaysia to look at other investment opportunities, including in IT and business processing engineering.