Viresh Oberoi in Calcutta on Thursday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta, Oct. 26: Want to buy a car? Go online.

That could be the new strategy of Tata Motors when it rolls out the Rs 1-lakh car from Singur in Bengal.

India’s leading automobile company is in talks with a group concern to work out a web-based model that will change the paradigm for car sales in India.

Metaljunction, a joint venture between Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), has started an online initiative that allows consumers to buy steel directly from manufacturers.

The plan is to expand the product basket to other items, including cars.

“We are in discussions with Tata Motors to evolve a system where cars can be sold through our portal,” Viresh Oberoi, managing director of Metaljunction, said.

With Tata Motors checking out innovations to keep costs under control, the online sales will reduce the distribution cost by eliminating dealers.

For companies such as General Motors India distribution costs on small and medium cars usually comprise 3 per cent of the ex-showroom price, while for bigger cars it varies between 6 to 8 per cent.

“The target is to reach the individual buyer. However, the fleet owners can also buy,” Oberoi explained.

With still two years to go before what Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata described as India’s “first truly people’s car” to hit the road, there is still some time for finetuning the model.

A Tata Motors official said that using the Interent to buy cars would soon catch up in India. Initially, the Net would be used by consumers to study the options available, allowing them to make informed choices at the time of buying cars from the showrooms.

“The medium would be used by a lot of companies to project a special lifestyle image for customers, for consumer feedback and also form customer groups for specific models,” said Ashutosh Dixit, business head-north and east, GM India.