Tata Motors invests in Thailand automobile plant

India's Tata Motors has invested in a 1.3 billion baht (around $39 million) joint venture to manufacture and assemble one-ton pickup trucks in Thailand, media reports confirmed on Thursday.

Tata Motors (Thailand) Company, a joint venture between India's Tata Motor (70 percent) and Thailand's Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant (30 percent), was granted Board of Investment BoI tax incentives on Wednesday to assemble and manufacture parts for 35,000 pickups a year bearing the Tata logo, the Bangkok Post reported.

Thailand is currently the world's second largest manufacturer of one-ton pickup trucks, an all-purpose utility vehicle popular among farmers and provincial businesses that claims about 60 per cent of the country's automotive market and is a major export item for the kingdom.

Industry sources told the Bangkok Post that the Tata brand pickups will be sold in Thailand for between 400,000 to 500,000 baht ($12,000 to $15,000), below the 600,000 to 1,000,000 baht ($18,000 to 29,000) of other pickups currently sold on the Thai market. About 20 per cent of the annual production will be exported.

The Tata-brand pickups will be manufactured at Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant, which already assembles Mercedes Benz models for the domestic market.