With the launch of Indica and Indigo, Tata Motors created a big surge in the passenger vehicle segment and it’s no wonder that they became the second largest vehicle manufacturer in India.
Now the picture is a bit different from what it was earlier. With Hyundai coming up with the i-Family and the Verna line-up, Tata made way for Hyundai and lost the position to them, while M&M continued to be the Best SUV-Seller with their entire range of SUVs. Introduction of Manza and Vista wasn’t of a big help and the ‘Nano-Expectation’ never took off, so they never got to reclaim their position back. Tata Motors was the Third Largest Manufacturer until Mahindra & Mahindra got an overwhelming response for the magnificent XUV 5OO.
Again, Tata Motors lost its position to M&M and slipped to the fourth position in the Indian passenger vehicle market. Maruti Suzuki is still the market leader, followed by Hyundai at the second position, M&M at the third and Tata Motors at the fourth position.
Sales figures released by the companies show that M&M‘s growth during the month of April – June was 28 per cent and they sold 61,504 units; while Tata Motors‘ growth slipped to 7 per cent and sold 60,405 units during the same period.
We think that Tata Motors needs a whole new design and a new line-up of cars that can help them revive the sales figures. With a few ‘fire incidents’, Nano never fulfilled the expectations. Various offers, schemes and discounts didn’t do much of a difference. Indica’s sales stood at 17,712 units and Indigo line-up’s sales stood at 9,724 which is 33 per cent lower! The sales of SUV and MUV line-up presented a combined sales figure of 10,829 units.
The air is quite light in the house of M&M! Mr. Parvin Shah, CEO of M&M, Automotive Division, said: “We are happy to have achieved a growth of 23% in the first quarter, given the pressures and various uncertainties , which the auto industry is currently facing. We expect the demand for utility vehicles to continue during the current financial year”.
However, TATA does have a few aces up its sleeve:
They are about to launch a CNG variant of Nano somewhere around Diwali. We have also caught a dual-tone cute looking Nano testing in Pune, however, what does TATA plan to do with it remains unknown. Tata Nano diesel is currently under test and expected during the first half of next year and they have the Safari Storme as well which is coming from ages!
We came to know about a Left Hand Drive Nano for foreign markets just yesterday in an exclusive MotorBash Scoop.
Tata Motors, wake up while people still have expectations!
By,
Arghya Pan
Team MotorBash
News Source: Economic Times
