Tata Motors calls off talks with Skoda

Bengaluru: Homegrown automobile makers Tata Motors on Thursday announced its decision to call off the potential partnership talks with Czech car manufacturer Skoda.  

The company said that after performing a joint technical feasibility and commercial evaluation of a potential collaboration, both firms concluded that the envisioned areas of partnership may not yield the desired synergies as originally assessed, based on intense and constructive discussions. The two companies, however, have decided to keep in touch for future areas of collaborations.

In a statement, Tata Motors CEO Guenter Butschek said, “We have evaluated the technical feasibility and degree of synergies for the envisioned partnership. We have concluded that the strategic benefits for both parties are below the threshold levels. However, we remain positive of exploring future opportunities with the Volkswagen group, given the relationship of mutual respect that we witnessed during the phase of our cooperation discussions”. 

Tata Motors, Volkswagen group and Skoda announced their decision to forge a long-term partnership for building products in March this year and the first rollout was expected in 2019. Tata Motors decided to launch in the country in 2019, based on the strategic alliance. However, according to reports, because of the growing differences over the use of platform and doubts related to business viability, the partnership had run into rough weather in June.