Mumbai: At least a decade after exiting the Indian passenger car market, Premier Ltd on Wednesday announced a comeback with Rio, a compact sports utility vehicle (SUV), that will be priced at least Rs5.25 lakh (ex-showroom Pune).
The firm has entered into an agreement with China’s Zoyote group for sourcing most components. “We found that commercial arrangements work out better than joint ventures,” said Maitreya V. Doshi, chairman and managing director of Premier Ltd, formerly Premier Auto Ltd and which made the Premier Padmini passenger car. The SUV market is currently dominated by Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and Tata Motors Ltd.
Premier has made an investment of Rs100 crore in the project and plans on producing at least 500 units a month through March 2010. It will also increase its dealerships from 30 currently to 100 in the next six months.