India collapsed, Tata Motors planning more products for global markets: Karl Slym

Adopting a global approach to offset the risk of depending only on its home market, Tata Motors is developing products that would suit global markets as well, as it also explores opportunity to enter the South American continent.

"We started the look into international markets a year ago. However, what happened this year in India is just the endorsement of the fact that you cannot be certain with all your eggs in one market because India has collapsed," Tata Motors Managing Director Karl Slym said.

The Indian car market was on a record nine months decline till July and sales picked up only in August and September.

Elaborating on the global expansion plans, Slym said: "We have set up a strategy team to look into the international business. Where should we be, so that the new products that we are developing also become internationally capable, so that opens up new markets for us as well."

Without disclosing details, he said the company is testing products in a number of markets all over the world where it believes to have opportunities.

Reflecting the change in approach, Slym further said: "We are not saying... okay we have launched it in India, we are not going to sell anywhere else now... that's not our approach."

The company entered Indonesia last week. It has also entered Saudi Arabia, apart from expanding business in Malaysia and plans for launches in Australia.

When asked about new markets, Slym said: "We are interested in places like South America, we are studying places at the moment to make sure that we find a strong partner to help us enter those markets and not go in alone."

Elections next year delay the action that is of suitable size to make a change for the Indian economy. So, that kind of a thing endorses the idea of a balanced portfolio in other countries as well, Slym added.

On the new products for future, he said: "We have our product portfolio confirmed till 2020. Now, when we are designing our portfolio, we are designing them for the global markets."

Last year, Tata Motors sold a total of 6 lakh units, of which 50,000 were in export markets.