Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Tata hit by drop in sales

Updated at 10:42 am on 31 May 2009

Annual net profits at Tata Motors are down by more than half due to a fall in demand for its cars and trucks.

India's largest vehicle maker made 10.1 billion rupees ($US214 million) in the year to the end of March - down from 20.29 billion rupees a year earlier.

The company described the October to December quarter as "really, really bad", but said sales were improving.

However, overall revenue fell by more than 10% to 256.6 billion rupees for the full year.

Tata launched the world's cheapest car, the Nano, last month.

The basic model of the Nano costs 100,000 rupees. Sales of the car have been described as "fairly satisfying."

The BBC reports Tata bought the Jaguar and Land Rover brands in Britain from Ford last year.

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