Mumbai, Feb 14 India's leading vehicle maker Tata Motors Wednesday said it had formed a joint venture with Italy's Fiat to make pick-up trucks in Argentina with an investment of about $80 million.The automobile majors, who formed a joint venture last July, Wednesday informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that they were expanding their strategic co-operation for starting an industrial project outside India.The joint venture, which calls for Tata license to build a pick-up vehicle, bearing the Fiat nameplate at Fiat Group Automobiles' plant in Cordoba, Argentina, follows a feasibility study started in July 2006, it said.According to the joint venture, the first vehicles will roll off the Cordoba assembly lines from 2008 with an annual production target slated around 20,000 vehicle, it said.'I am very pleased at this first step in expanding the relationship of Fiat Group and Tata beyond the shores of India and would hope it would augur well for a truly global partnership across markets and business segments,' said Tata Group and Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata.The company said that the vehicle, based on the new generation Tata pick-up truck, will be sold in South and Central America and select European markets through Fiat Automobiles' distribution and importer network.'This will permit the Fiat brand to aggressively enter the medium pick-up sector. Engines for the pick-up will be manufactured in Fiat Powertrain Technology's facility in Sete Lagoas, Brazil,' the company said.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
