Formerly known as Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO),
The company was founded in 1945 as a manufacturer of locomotives. The company
manufactured its first commercial vehicle in 1954 in a collaboration with
Daimler-Benz AG, which ended in 1969. Tata Motors entered the passenger
vehicle market in 1988 with the launch of the TataMobile followed by the Tata
Sierra in 1991, becoming the first Indian manufacturer to achieve the
capability of developing a competitive indigenous automobile.[5] In 1998, Tata
launched the first fully indigenous Indian passenger car, the Indica, and in
2008 launched the Tata Nano, the world's most affordable car. Tata Motors
acquired the South Korean truck manufacturer Daewoo Commercial Vehicles
Company in 2004. Tata Motors has been the parent company of Jaguar Land Rover
since the company established it for the acquisition of Jaguar Cars and Land
Rover from Ford in 2008.
Tata Motors' principal subsidiaries include British premium car maker Jaguar
Land Rover (the maker of Jaguar and Land Rover cars) and the South Korean
commercial vehicle manufacturer Tata Daewoo. Tata Motors has a
construction-equipment manufacturing joint venture with Hitachi (Tata Hitachi
Construction Machinery), and a joint venture with Stellantis which
manufactures automotive components and Fiat Chrysler and Tata branded
vehicles. On Oct 12, 2021 private equity firm TPG invested $1 billion in Tata
Motors' electric vehicle subsidiary.[6]
Tata Motors has auto manufacturing and vehicle plants in Jamshedpur,
Pantnagar, Lucknow, Sanand, Dharwad, and Pune in India, as well as in
Argentina, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Thailand. It has research and
development centres in Pune, Jamshedpur, Lucknow, and Dharwad, India and South
Korea, the United Kingdom, and Spain. Tata Motors is listed on the BSE (Bombay
Stock Exchange), where it is a constituent of the BSE SENSEX index, the
National Stock Exchange of India, and the New York Stock Exchange. The company
is ranked 265th on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest
corporations as of 2019.[7]
On 17 January 2017, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was appointed chairman of the
company Tata Group. Tata Motors increased its UV market share to over 8% in
FY2019.