After creating the world’s cheapest car, the Nano, Tata Motors in now in the process of developing an electric car, said company’s Chairman Mr. Ratan Tata. The company is also developing and eco-car in thailand and will launch a new range of world-class trucks, he added speaking at company’s AGM in Mumbai.

Mr. Tata also said that the year 2009 will be a difficult but not a bad year for the company which has recently completed the acquisition of two iconic British brands, Jaguar and Land Rover. The year ahead is expected to be a watershed year with major challenges like higher fuel costs, inflation, high interest rates and high steel prices.

Apart from all these challenges the company will also have to absorb the cost of JLR acquisition and deal with its integration, Tata Said. The company will soon seek the mandatory permission from the market regulator SEBI for its planned  Rs 7000 Crores rights issue to part fund its recent JLR, he added.

On JLR acquisition, Tata said, “We have acquired a very interesting and capable company which operates in 120 countries. We are now among 17 largest auto companies in the world having two global brands.” “Today, we have had an opportunity to acquire a major international company. It has been a gutsy decision…I hope that we can over time, say that there was an opportunity to get an independent car company and make the acquisition and bring it into our fold.
“We took that opportunity and I hope that we can prove in the future that it was a justifiable decision,” Tata said.

On rights issues, he said, “We are going through the process of offer document, SEBI and everything else. We will take a decision on the rights issue when the time is right…we are not planning delaying it. To part fund its JLR, Tata Motors is raising Rs 7,200-crore on a rights basis and USD 500/600 million through an international offering of equity or cost-effective quasi- equity instruments.