Tata Motors plans joint venture with Brazil bus manufacturer Marcopolo

Mumbai: Tata Motors Ltd is looking for land to set up a joint venture bus body production facility with Brazilian bus maker Marcopolo SA.

"It will be among the world's biggest (bus body production units)," Ravi Kant, managing director of Tata Motors, said on the sidelines of an automobile conference. Tata Motors also plans to roll out a passenger version of Ace, the company's popular mini-truck model, in the next six months, Kant said.

Marcopolon SA , set up in 1949, in the Southern Brazilian city of Caxias do Sul, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, makes bus bodies for a whole range of coaches, including microbus, intercity and touring coach.

Marcopolo produces over half of the bus bodies made in Brazil and exports its coaches to more than 60 countries.

Currently Marcopolo has four plants in Brazil and plants in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Portugal and South Africa, in addition to the technology that will be transferred to China.