Tata Motors, Volkswagen buckle up for a joint ride

First vehicle may hit Indian market in 2019; pact aimed at developing vehicles for various EMs

Tata Motors, the country’s largest automobile maker by revenue, will partner the world’s biggest maker in the sector, Volkswagen, and the latter’s group company, Škoda, to jointly develop vehicles, targeted at emerging markets (EMs), including India.

Tata Motors aims to launch products from this partnership in India during the 2019 calendar year. An agreement was signed between these companies on Friday in Geneva. 

Neither Tata nor Germany-headquartered Volkswagen is among the top three car companies in India by market share. Tata Motors, the country’s largest commercial vehicle maker, has 5.6 per cent in the three million a year car market. Volkswagen’s share,