Tata Motors cars get Founders Edition versions to mark 75th anniversary
Tata Motors has announced the launch of a Founders Edition series for its range of cars. These cars are only for sale to Tata employees and commemorate the 75th anniversary of the founding of Tata Motors as TELCO in 1946 by JRD Tata. The Founders Edition upgrades can be specified on the Tiago, Tigor, Altroz, Nexon, Harrier and the recently launched Tata Safari, priced identically to regular models.
Additions to the Founders Editions car are a blue background to the Tata logo on the grille and tailgate, along with JRD Tata's signage on a chrome plate on the fenders, bootlid and dash. Owners of the Founders Editions will also receive a set of postcards and photo frames with sketches of some of the cars from the brand's back-catalogue. These cars do not get any mechanical or feature upgrades over standard models.
The Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company was set up in 1945 by JRD Tata to manufacture steam locomotives. The company diversified into automobile production in 1954 when it started building the TMB 312 truck under financial and technical collaboration with Daimler-Benz AG (now Daimler AG). The collaboration ended in 1969 while the locomotives business was also shuttered in 1971. Since then, the company had largely been a commercial vehicle manufacturer, making its first passenger vehicle in 1991, the Tata Estate. After changing its name to Tata Motors in 2003, the next major milestone for the firm was its acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover in 2008. Concurrently, the brand launched notable cars like the Indica and the Nano, with the Sierra and Safari SUVs preceding these.