Mercedes exits 60 year old pact with Tata - Zigwheels.com

Mercedes-Benz has ended its near six decade long agreement with Tata Motors as the German luxury car giant has inaugurated its own paint shop at the company's Chakan plant Mercedes Benz has finally said bye-bye to Tata Motors. The German luxury carmaker ended its nearly six decades-old relationship with the Indian auto giant when it inaugurated its own paint shop as part of the expansion of capacity at its Chakan plant near Pune. Said Eberhard Kern, CMD & CEO, Mercedes Benz India: "Mercedes Benz India has inaugurated its own paint shop and we no longer use the Tata Motors facility." Mercedez has been using the paint shop at Tata Motors' Pune facility since it began operating in India. The paint-shop sharing arrangement between the two companies came up for renewal in December 2010 when the German luxury car maker decided to set up its own integrated facility in Chakan.  Mercedes Benz's capacity expansion at Chakan has also brought about another significant restructuring which has divided the commercial vehicle and passenger car production between the Chakan plant and Daimler Commercial Vehicles' Chennai factory. "A fortnight ago, we moved the Mercedes Benz buses to our Chennai plant," said Kern. "Earlier we had moved the Actros truck production to Chennai too. Now all cars are being made in Chakan and all buses and trucks in Chennai," he said.  Daimler has invested around Rs 850 crore in the Mercedes Benz Chakan plant so far and another $1 billion in its commercial vehicle plant outside Chennai. The end of the paint shop arrangement has brought the curtains down on one of the longest running local-global collaborations in the country.  It started back in 1954 when Tata Motors (then Telco) and Daimler Benz decided to jointly manufacture medium commercial vehicles. The first vehicle rolled out within six months of the contract. The truck deal lasted 15 years. The two firms came together again in 1994 when they signed a joint venture agreement to manufacture Mercedes Benz passenger cars in India and the Mercedes Benz E220 hit the roads the very next year. Tata Motors, however, sold off its entire stake in Mercedes Benz India by 2000-2001.  Also read: Mercedes-Benz A-Class : Special Coverage via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEPcFW_EaBGmY8bOfBPex8j3dKFTA&url=http://www.zigwheels.com/news-features/news/mercedes-exits-60-year-old-pact-with-tata/16408/

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