Tata Motors gears up for South American drive with first car plant in Venezuela.

As it works to reposition itself in the car market at home by launching new products, Tata Motors is not ignoring the overseas territory. In a first, the company is setting up a full-fledged car assembly plant overseas — in Venezuela — to penetrate the 4.5-million-unit South American market. Though Tata Motors has nine commercial vehicle (CV) plants overseas, so far it has none for the passenger cars.

The Venezuelan plant, to be operated jointly with a partner, would initially assemble the Manza sedan and Indica eV2 models from completely knocked down (CKD) kits exported from India, and later be expanded to manufacture other products, sources in the know told FE. While an announcement is likely by September, the assembly plant is expected to have an initial capacity of 20,000 units a year.

FE