Tata Motors (which was TELCO earlier) collaborated with Daimler-Benz to manufacture trucks in India, and the first truck was rolled out within 6 months. The deal was for 15 years during which Tata could use Benz engine and had to put the Benz logo in front grill. It was popularly called the “Tata-Mercedes-Benz” truck (TMB) and was considered to be of superior quality by the industry. In 1969, when the JV with Benz came to an end, Tata started using its engine (which was a replica of Benz engine). By then, Tata had also opened up its research centre paving way for a series of trucks from the Tata stable over the next few decades. Although Tata ended the Benz deal in 1969, it retained the same chassis and shape. So from the outside, it looked like the Benz logo was replaced by Tata. Notice the curvature of front Bonnet and the round headlight.

In 1977, they launched a much sophisticated truck and changed the front design which embedded rectangular headlights in front (unlike the round ones which used to protrude out) and the bonnet was much wider. It comes under Tata S series (1210S) and there were improvements for subsequent versions like SE (1210SE) and so on.