Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant confirmed on Tuesday that the company’s joint venture partner Fiat spA has offered to help the Indian company on its one-lakh car project.

Speaking at a press conference following its third quarter results Mr Kant said: “Fiat has offered to help and we have accepted. But at this stage we have already frozen the design, handed out 2/3 of the contracts and tied up 60-70 vendors. So the scope for change is very limited, they can chip in by maybe fine-tuning the design. We will see what can be done. They could have made a more meaningful contribution if this offer had come 4-5 years ago.” It has been speculated for some time that Tata Motors may bank on Fiat’s engineering expertise to see its one-lakh car project through.

Kant also added that many of its vendors are setting up their facilities in Singur alongside Tata Motors. Tata Motors began construction of its new facility on Singur earlier this week. Tata Motors entered into a multi-faceted joint venture with Fiat of Italy in July last year. The joint venture agreement is open ended and goes beyond manufacturing and marketing to include co-development of new products and technology sharing.

Tata Motors’ profit in the third quarter ended December 31, 2006, was up 12% to Rs 513.17 crore while revenue grew 37% to Rs 6956.84 crore. Profit before tax was up 20% to Rs 708.74 crore while operating profit gained 53% to Rs 952.21 crore. The profit before tax in the corresponding quarter of last year included a gain of Rs 164.30 crores on account of sale of shares of Telco Construction Equipment Company (Telcon), a subsidiary of the company to Hitachi. Operating margins were 13.6% during the quarter as compared with 10.5% in the same period of the previous year.

On a consolidated basis profit after tax was up 9% at Rs 602.07 crore while revenue grew 37% at Rs 8176.03 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2006.

Tata Motors sold 1,41,827 units of its vehicles during the quarter, an increase of 28%. Passenger car sales were up 22% at 52,991, medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales were up 34 % while light commercial vehicle sales were up 44$ during the quarter. Tata Motors Ace averaged 6,500 units per month during the quarter.