India media speculation has swirled furiously around possible prestige segment ambitions for Tata Motors this week, linking it to taking on the importation and distribution of Fiat's portfolio of prestige brands, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati, and talking of Tata achieving these plans in progressive stages by 2010.

Tata Motors is already a joint venture partner of Fiat in several key areas in India, including in the manufacture and retailing of the Fiat Palio hatchback and its derivative models in India.  The Fiat Grande Punto and Linea are both slated to be built in India shortly, while Fiat has reportedly had engineering input into Tata's new low cost car project. Further a field a joint project between Fiat and Tata to build a pick-up in Argentina is building up to fruition, and tie-ups between Fiat's Iveco truck division and Tata's similar Daewoo unit are expected. Tata Chairman Rata Tata also sits on the Fiat Group board.

Reports in the Indian media over recent days suggest Tata, which so far has concentrated on low-cost cars and trucks, is now interested in creating a prestige brands' division. All the Fiat Group's premiere brands have been mentioned in these media discussions: Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia and Ferrari. With Alfa Romeo and Lancia being set ambitious targets by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne of achieving 300,000 units per year annual production by 2010; and with the specialist sports-luxury Maserati unit chasing a long-term goal of reaching a 10,000 unit annual production figure, these three brands would all welcome greater exposure to the rapidly-growing Indian market and its booing economy.

Tata are expected to start with the Alfa Romeo and Lancia brands, however these cars would start from around Rs 50 lakh and go up to Rs 1 crore, which would make them quite expensive to purchase. Creating just a dedicated showroom would be expected to cost around Rs 30 crore, with Tata Motors having to reach new standards and develop a separate distribution, aftersales and customer care network; necessary as the firm has an image for building and selling lower-cost vehicles.
 

At present National Garage is the exclusive importer in India for Ferrari as well as Maserati, with purchase of the cars being by invitation. Newspaper reports reckon there are currently 10 Maseratis and 36 Ferraris in the country. Any future involvement by Tata would lead to a big shake-up.

Ferrari already has very close ties with the Tata conglomerate itself as the Tata Group's IT division, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) provides computer software services to the Ferrari Formula 1 team. The deal began at the start of the 2005 Grand Prix season and made TCS the first company from India to be involved in F1. "This collaboration is a tribute to our work, to the solutions we provide and to  our engineers who strive ceaselessly to make this company what it is today," says TCS Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer S Ramadoraiand. The arrangement also includes TCS input into Ferrari's road sports car development programmes, while the two firms are currently investigating developing new software together.

"The world's favourite sports car has chosen Tata Motors as partner to zoom into India's exclusive market," said one media report this week. Reports suggest the 430 berlinetta, in Coupé and Spider format, as well as the 612 Scaglietti 'Grand Tourer' are the models which have been earmarked for the Indian market, with Tata developing dedicated showrooms, an aftersales network and engineering facilities.