It has been reported that the next stage of the new alliance between Fiat Auto and Tata Motors could see production facilities being shared at either Tata's Pune facility or Fiat's unused Ranjangaon plant.

At the beginning of March the first stage of the Tata Motors -Fiat Auto venture got underway with the appointment of 28 joint dealerships which are now selling the Fiat Palio and Adventure models alongside the full Tata Motors passenger car range. This was the first concrete outcome of a wide-ranging study implemented after the two companies signed a 'Memorandum of Understanding' to explore a variety of joint-venture proposals including sharing production, components, joint purchasing and Research & Development. Early last month the Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata was co-opted onto the Fiat Group board, proposed by major shareholder IFIL.

The mooted production sharing is likely to take place at either Tata Motors' well established Pune factory or Fiat Auto's assembly plant 65km away at Ranjangaon. Fiat's brand-new plant at Ranjangaon, located on a 250 acre greenfield site in the new growth town, currently lies unused, while Palio range production trickles out of its other plant at Kurla, a former joint-venture facility with Premier Automobiles which has recently seen its employees offered voluntary redundancy as expectation grows that Fiat will close it down. Building cars at the new Ranjangaon facility, which has a capacity to produce 70,000 car a year could prove a logical step.
 

Meanwhile yesterday Tata Motor announced its financial results for the year ending 31st March 2006, reporting an impressive growth of 20% in its consolidated gross revenue to Rs.27266.41 crores, as against the previous year's consolidated gross revenue of Rs.22708.23 crores. The total sales volume (including exports) for 2005-06 was 454,129 vehicles, the company's highest ever and a growth of 14% over 399,566 vehicles sold in 2004-05. Commercial Vehicle sales in the domestic market were 214,836 units, also the highest ever with an increase of 13%. The company's overall market share in commercial vehicles has improved to 61.3% from 59.7% from the previous year. Passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market amounted to 189,070 units, also the highest ever with a growth of 6%.

In spite of intense competition, the company's market share in passenger vehicles was maintained at 16.5%, compared to 16.9% in the previous year. During the year, Tata Motors launched several new commercial and passenger vehicles. Among them are the Ace mini-truck, Tata Novus Tipper, a common rail diesel engine (DiCOR) powered Safari, Indigo SX, Indica V2 Turbo Diesel, and the Indica V2 Xeta. All these products have received encouraging response in the market.

The company exported 50,223 vehicles during the year, creating a new milestone with an impressive growth of 65%. The company also announced an increase in its divided and outlined a new small, rear-engined car project which will be built at a new plant in West Bengal.