New Delhi, May 8: Tata Motors today launched its sub-tonne mini truck ‘Tata Ace’ in Sri Lanka.

The Emeralds Islands will be the first foreign location where the mini truck, developed in-house by the company's engineers, will be launched.

Tata Ace was introduced in the domestic market last year. Since then, the automobile giant has sold 30,000 of these small trucks.

Ace is available in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Gujarat, Rajasthan and New Delhi.

The company will launch the mini truck in other states in a phased manner.

Buoyed by the success of ‘Ace’ sales in India, the company had recently announced that the annual manufacturing capacity was being doubled to 60,000 units at its production facility in Pune.

At the launch of Tata Ace in New Delhi early this year, Shyam Mani, vice-president (sales and marketing, commercial vehicles) of Tata Motors, said the company had made an incremental investment of about Rs 200 crore in ramping up the capacity, which can be increased up to 75,000 units a year.

Powered by a small and unique twin cylinder 16PS IDI 700-cc diesel engine, the sub-one tonne truck, priced between Rs 2.25-2.4 lakh, is suitable for both rural and urban use and has the ability to carry a variety of payloads with turning radius of 4.3 metres to navigate narrow by-lanes.

The Tatas, who proposed Ace as an alternative to the three-wheeler cargo carrier, started selling 2,500 units from the third month of its launch last May.

Tata Group flagship Tata Motors is India’s largest automobile company, with revenues of $4.7 billion in 2004-05.

With over 3 million Tata vehicles plying in India, it is the leader in commercial vehicles and the second largest in passenger cars.