The chairman of Tata Motors says, no company can afford to be “pig-headed” and say I’m going to build it on my own. But, says he, alliances must bring in tangible benefits.

In an automotive market chock-full of international brands and MNCs, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra remain as the only Indian car brands of size. However, said Tata Motors Chairman N Chandrasekaran, this unique position isn't due to a lack of interest from potential collaborators: On the contrary, he said, the company is always engaged in exploring collaborations and partnerships with others.

"Many companies are keen to partner with Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover", he said in a recent interview with Autocar India. “People will always want to invest in Tata Motors.” Similarly, others want to do collaborations, he pointed out. 

“All these things happen. But for us, these are our companies. We run these companies, and we have [envisaged] a great future for these companies,” he said.

Autocar India had exclusively reported in 2019, that Tata Motors and Geely are in conversation for a project called Blackbird a mid-size SUV to challenge the Creta SUV, but the project did not go ahead. 

Just ahead of Covid-19, Tata Motors had passed a resolution to subsidiarise the passenger vehicle business and at that time, the company had stated that it was open to partnerships for a stake sale.

While the alliance with Geely did not take place, the company’s electric vehicle business was able to rope in private equity investors in 2021 and raise $1 billion at a whopping valuation of $9.1 billion.

In the interview, Chandrasekaran confirmed that Tata Motors was in talks with the Chinese carmaker Geely about a platform-sharing partnership. He said the expression of investment from various interested parties is quite regular.

Pragmatic on Partnerships

Chandrasekaran said he believes that Tata Motors has to be open to collaborations and partnerships, especially when it can yield something the company does not have, or cut its time-to-market.

Hence, he said, the company cannot afford to be “pig-headed,” and say, ‘I’m going to build (everything) on my own’. 

"We’ll always be open for collaboration…If we need a platform that somebody else can give us, and we can launch the products faster, we should be taking those platforms.”

On the rationale behind choosing a partner or an alliance, Chandrasekaran elaborated that there is always an evaluation of “buy versus build” or “partner versus build.”

“It is always a time-to-market issue, and [we have to see] the fitness of the issue: whether what you get is really what you need, or gives you what you need. So those kinds of discussions will always happen. It is not only with the companies that you mentioned. These things have happened with many players. Many people have met me, and I have met many people, and these dialogues keep happening ,” he added.