Tata Motors names former Airbus executive as new CEO

Guenter Butschek will start his new job by February 15

Tata Motors Ltd has hired former Airbus Group executive Guenter Butschek (bottom, left) as its new chief executive, India's largest automaker said on Monday.

Butschek, who will start his new job by Feb. 15, replaces Karl Slym, who died two years ago.

He will lead Tata Motors' business in India and in international markets including South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa, the company said in the statement on Monday.

Ralf Speth will continue to be chief executive officer of Tata's luxury unit Jaguar Land Rover Ltd.

Between April and December, Tata Motors' domestic passenger vehicle sales fell 2 percent to about 112,030 while total industry sales rose 9 percent to over 2 million vehicles, industry data showed.

To boost sales, Tata Motors is focusing more on quality and design that it hopes will help shed its 'taxi car' image.

"Tata Motors is going through an exciting yet challenging phase and Mr Butschek's appointment comes at an opportune moment," Cyrus Mistry, Tata Motors' chairman said in the statement.

The 55-year-old German was chief operating officer at Airbus until December 2014. He has also worked at Daimler AG where he was last chief executive of Beijing Benz Automotive. (Reporting by Aditi Shah; editing by Susan Thomas)