Dassault in plan to make electric cars with Tata

BOMBAY, March 11 (AFP) – The car manufacturing arm of French aerospace giant Dassault Aviation is mulling plans to manufacture an electric car with India’s leading automobile company Tata Motors, an industry official said Thursday.

Dassault’s Societe Des Vehicules Electriques (SVE) is exploring options of either setting up a joint venture firm in India or entering into a technology transfer arrangement with Tata Motors, said an official close to the negotiations.

“Very preliminary and nascent discussions have taken place between Dassault’s SVE and the chairman of Tata Motors Ratan Tata,” the official said.Tata spokesman V. Krishna said his firm did “not wish to comment on this.”

Tata Motors is India’s leading commercial vehicle and passenger car maker.

It sold 280,000 vehicles between April 2003 and February 2004, a 45.4 percent jump from the corresponding previous period.

Maini Industries based in the southern city of Bangalore launched India’s first two-door electric hatchback, the Reva, which has a top speed of 65 kilometres per hour (40 miles per hour) in 2001.

It has a tie-up with Britain’s Going Green Ltd. to market the environmentally-friendly Reva in Europe.

© AFP

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