Tata Motors might be losing market share but the company has big plans for the future. The Indian commercial vehicle giant plans to break into the top three in 2014 and is going through a complete redesign for its vehicles. Almost all its vehicles are seeing a decline in sales and competition is really hurting the company. When the going gets tough, the tough get going and Tata Motors is one tough company, which will never give up. We caught up with Ashish Dhar (Head – Utility Vehicles, Tata Motors) a few weeks back and got some interesting insights from him. Here are some pointers from the impromptu interview.
* Tata Motors is betting big on utility vehicles, they are now the owners of Land Rover which is the best UV manufacturer in the world. Thus they plan to learn from them and use their expertise in the future.
* The Tata Aria has huge potential and a facelift is on the cards, which will be launched this festive season. The Aria was priced high as it had high amount of features but the marketing was all wrong which led to the product not selling.
* Tata Motors plans to launch automatic variants of its cars. The company showcased the Aria Automatic recently but won’t launch it immediately.
* The company is working on sub 4-metre vehicles and sees the segment as an area of huge interest as the tax concessions are too lucrative to ignore.
* The Safari Storme has got good response, more so in the North. The company is very content with its sales and feels compact SUVs like the Renault Duster have not affected the Safari much.
* The Xenon hasn’t sold much in the private sector but is doing very well in the commercial space.
* Tata Motors is trying to create awareness about their vehicles and trying to change the perception that people have about them being unreliable. The company feels their products are subjected to more rugged use.
