[flickr size=”center” float=”medium”]http://www.flickr.com/photos/motorbeam/8096455475/[/flickr]
Five years is normally the life cycle of a vehicle in today’s day and age. The complete market scenario changes in half a decade. The old Safari started to face tough competition in 2005, after the Mahindra Scorpio was updated and Tata Motors was quick to realize the same. In early 2006, Tata Motors initiated the Safari18 project at its Pune Research Centre, as the Safari needed an urgent upgrade to face rising competition. 18 stood for 18 months, the time Tata Motors targeted to develop the new model.
However Tata Motors wasn’t able to meet the deadline and instead of being late by a few months, it took Tata Motors more than six years to bring the new Safari to the market, a delay of 5 years! Such a delay is indeed massive as by the time the Safari Storme went on sale, there were several changes in market conditions, customer requirements, etc. In fact the Safari Storme was all over Indian roads, featuring test plates as early as 2011. But the launch took place in October 2012, a time by which an entire new segment of compact SUVs emerged.
Read The Tata Safari Storme Review
So when Tata Motors commenced the Safari Storme project, it only had the Mahindra Scorpio to rival. By the time the Safari Storme went on sale, the Mahindra XUV500 and Renault Duster had already come and conquered the market completely. The problem with Tata Motors has been the people heading it, most of whom have come from commercial vehicle business, where frequent product updates are unheard off. With Karl Slym at the helm, Tata Motors should be able to focus like a passenger car unit and bring out attractive products.
[flickr size=”center” float=”medium”]http://www.flickr.com/photos/motorbeam/8096464918/[/flickr]
Source – MoneyControl
