Having successfully tied up with MG Rovers for marketing their passengers cars in Europe with a target of 100,000 Indicas over the next five years, Tata Engineering is now eyeing the vast Chinese market for their B-segment cars.

"We have studied the Chinese market and are very bullish about the prospects. Over a period of time, we will have a foothold in China. Right now, two Indicas are on display in one of the retail outlets there," Telco vice-president (commercial, passenger car business) Rajiv Dube said.

Dube and other senior executives of the passenger car business unit of Telco  including general manager (marketing) S Krishnan and  regional manager(south) Anupam Misra are here in connection with the opening of the company's 117th car dealership, Autofin limited at Secunderabad.

Dube said Indica was first exposed to the Chinese market at the Shanghai Motor Show two years ago and subsequently in another Motor Show in China.

"It was  an instant draw. Few in China believed that India could indigeneously design and produce such a car and were keen to know if any Japanese or Korean platform was used for the purpose," he said.

Stating that China  “is the biggest potential market,”  Dube said that  in 2001  the passenger car market in China was just marginally smaller than the market in India.

But by 2002,  the potential shot up to one million cars a year, but these were mostly confined to the government sector and taxi cab market and there was little retail sale.

But towards the end of  last year,  there was considerable liberalisation and for the first time car finance hit the Chinese market.

"Now individual and family buying has picked up and the market is set to take off," he said.  The Tata executive said for the Chinese,  India remained  somewhat of a mystery.   Even those who knew  a bit of India, the knowledge had not percolated down to know the House of  Tatas.

But lately, Tatas have been doing quite a bit for China.  TCS  is involved in a big way in the software business in China.

Two Tata group companies were sourcing their raw material requirements from China. Apart from China, Telco  is also looking at market potential in  West Asia and Asia Pacific region.

Dube said Tata Engineering will be crossing the milestone of selling in the domestic market 100,000 passenger cars by the end of this month.  By  the end of February, the sale  crossed the 90,000 units mark.

He claimed that the just-launched C segment car, Indigo had a 27 percent market share in the first month of launch and 29 percent in the second month  i.e. February.