Tata Motors unveils upgraded versions of Indica, Indigo, Sumo, Safari and Nano

June 19, 2013 | ET Bureau & Agencies

NEW DELHI: Tata Motors on Wednesday launched eight upgraded models of its cars, across five brands. The company introduced enhanced versions of Indigo eCS, Sumo Gold, Nano, Indica and Safari. The company also showcased a new CNG range - Tata Indica CNG, Tata Indigo CNG and Tata Nano CNG along with an explorer edition of the Tata Safari Storme. The auto major plans to roll out these variants over the next ninety days. Tata Nano: Tata Nano has new features including remote keyless entry, twin gloveboxes, and a four-speaker music system with Bluetooth USB. It will also come in new exterior colours. The car will be available in dealerships by July 2013. The CNG variant of the Nano will be called E-MAX. Tata Indigo eCS: Tata has made changes to this executive compact sedan's exteriors and interiors. The new version comes equipped with a CR4 diesel engine which delivers 25 kmpl (ARAI certified) mileage, claims Tata. The eCS facelift has blackened headlamps, new chrome grille, chrome strip at the rear for top end model. Along with exterior changes, the new Indigo eCS gets an improved F-type gearbox and advance suspension setup, says Tata Motors. Tata Sumo Gold: The new Sumo Gold comes equipped with a CR4 engine, dual AC and new music system with Bluetooth and exterior decals. Tata claims that the car has a fuel economy of 15.3 kmpl. Tata Indica: The new Tata Indica comes with dual tone interiors and new transmission (Smart-shift gear technology). The car has a fuel efficiency of 25 kmpl (for the BS4 variant), claims Tata. Tata Safari Storme - Explorer Edition: The range of accessories in the Explorer Edition include a touchscreen Double DIN Infotainment system, nudge guard, door visors, explorer decals and adventure gears like camping kits, backpack etc. These accessories will initially be available in select Tata Motors outlets. Speaking on the occasion, Karl Slym, Managing Director, Tata Motors, said, "While the Indian automobile market has become intensely competitive, our goal is to enhance our market leadership in commercial vehicles and move to a strong podium finish in the passenger vehicle market." "Horizonext is the next step in line with the company's mission to be passionate in anticipating and providing the best vehicles and experiences that excite our customers globally. We are igniting that passion -- so that customers are central to us, in what we are offering in our products, in the manner we are engaging with them at our dealerships, and in the processes we have adopted in servicing their vehicles," said Slym. Ranjit Yadav, president, Passenger Vehicle Business Units at Tata Motors said that while the company is working towards the next-generation product pipeline, on Wednesday the company was bringing best-in-class vehicle experience across different passenger car categories to enhance some of our great existing brands. "Besides offering exciting new features, these cars will be backed by an engaging purchase experience and a transformed after-sales network," added Yadav. The year FY-13 was one of the worst year for Tata Motors on a standalone basis. ON the operational level, the company had incurred losses, the net profit at Rs 300 crore was one of the worst in a decade and revenues fell 18% for the company. THe company's market share in passenger vehicle space dropped below 10%, the lowest for a long time.

Maruti, Toyota, Tata Motors report decline in June sales

July1,2013

NEW DELHI: Car sales in India appear to be heading for a record eighth consecutive month of decline with major firms, including Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Toyota and General Motors, reporting drop in June as economic slowdown and low consumer sentiments continue to affect demand. Honda Cars India, however, posted over 3-fold jump in June sales on the back of its newly launched compact sedan Amaze. Hyundai Motor India and Ford India also reported increase in domestic sales bucking the declining trend. In June 2013, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) registered 7.8 per cent decline in domestic sales at 77,002 units as against to 83,531 units in June 2012, the company said in a statement. MSI's sales in mini segment, including the M800, A-Star, Alto and WagonR, declined by 8.4 per cent to 31,314 units, while in the compact segment (comprising the Estilo, Swift and Ritz models), MSI witnessed 7.2 per cent fall in sales at 20,996 units. Sales of the DZiRE model fell by 8.7 per cent to 12,548 units. Homegrown major, Tata Motors said its total passenger vehicle sales in the domestic market stood at 11,804 units in June, down 31.54 per cent from 17,244 units in the same month last year. Likewise, Toyota Kirloskar Motor also reported 19.45 per cent decline in its domestic car sales at 13,805 units in June, 2013. It had sold 17,140 units in the corresponding month of last year. Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Deputy Managing Director and COO (Marketing and Commercial) Sandeep Singh said the overall weak economic conditions continue to keep the market sentiments low and the market sluggish. Another homegrown firm, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) domestic sales stood at 36,207 units as against 38,951 units in the same month last year, down 7.04 per cent. "We have witnessed a de-growth in the month of June, 2013 amidst an overall decline in the auto industry. The depreciating rupee resulting in spiralling fuel costs coupled with high interest rates and the additional excise duty on SUVs has further dampened the industry without any substantial revenue to government," M&M Chief Executive (Automotive Division) Pravin Shah said. Following the trend, General Motors India also reported 10.71 per cent decline in sales at 6,575 units in June 2013. "The market also continues to remain subdued due to high fuel prices, high interest rates and various other structural bottlenecks and macroeconomic uncertainties," GM India Vice-President P Balendran said. Car sales in India had fallen for a record seventh consecutive month in May with a decline of 12.26 per cent at 1,43,216 units as against 1,63,222 units in the same month of 2012. Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL), however, had good sales in June with over three-fold jump in domestic sales at 9,297 units as against 2,667 units in the same month last year.

More selling could be seen in Tata Motors and Maruti: Avinnash Gorakssakar
ET Now Jul 9, 2013, 04.52PM IST

In a chat with ET Now, Avinnash Gorakssakar, Head of Research, Miintdirect.com, shares his views on Maruti and Tata Motors. ET Now: Maruti as well as Tata Motors, both are facing within their units the risk of sluggish demand, Maruti is of course talking about rationalising production due to demand slowing down and Tata Motors is facing threat to their UK plants. What's your take on them.

Avinnash Gorakssakar: Both these stocks in the short term we could see more selling pressure coming in. Maruti is clear case where weak demand has forced the company to actually go for a production cut. My sense is unless and until we see kind of a rate cut kind of materialising which looks difficult in the very near term, demand at the ground level continues to be weak, in fact at least for a couple of months passenger car demand is not going to grow that well. As far as Tata Motors is concerned, that would be a big negative surprise if at all the strike actually becomes a big issue because that was one element of the overall business model which the market was betting on. Domestic sales have already been weak for Tata Motors. CV sales have seen negative growth for almost past two to three quarters. So clearly, in the very near term, even the numbers which are going to come out, the Q1 numbers, I would not be surprised if these numbers also remain quite depressed and possibly some more selling could be seen in both Tata Motors as well as Maruti.

Unless the government starts investing in infrastructure projects and mines start operating at their previous levels, Tata Motors feels that the subdued domestic demand for medium/heavy commercial vehicles (MCV/HCV) would continue. At Friday's inauguration of Rajeev Associates' heat treatment plant at the Adityapur industrial area, FE asked what the current demand situation of commercial vehicles is and how the first quarter has been so far for the company. Tata Motors' local plant head A B Lall said, "The volumes are not there, we are working at around 50%-55% level. Up until the first quarter of FY14, there has been nothing very positive. Unless the government steps in to invest in infrastructure projects and the mines start operating, commercial vehicles' demand would remain affected." If mining activity picked up in the country, demand for commercial vehicles would pick up, he added. Lall said the local plant which couple of years ago had seen production of around 12,000 medium & heavy commercial vehicles a month was currently turning out around 8,000-8,500 chassis a month. The company's MCV/HCV plant here had

achieved the rare distinction of turning out more than one lakh commercial vehicles in a year in 2010-11. The local plant's production target for June 2014 has been kept between 8,000 and 8,500 units, which, Lall said, was similar to that it had achieved in May. The plant head said despite the first quarter being "not so good" volume-wise, the auto major had yet maintained its leadership in terms of market share of 65% in the commercial vehicles segment. Tata Motors produces its full range of MCVs/HCVs at its plant here on a large scale with the overall annual plant capacity being 1.50 lakh units, including 55,000 units of its 'Prima' range of world trucks. Its only other MCV/HCV unit is at Lucknow, and has a capacity to produce around 4,000-5,000 HCVs (mainly bus chassis) a month, the annual capacity being around 70,000 units - stretchable to one lakh units with some additional balancing investment.

Amid declining sales of its vehicles across all categories, Tata Motors is supporting its component suppliers to deal with the slowdown in the automotive market.

Though the firm has not yet offered any financial package to its vendors, it is planning to help them reduce their operational costs through various measures. When the whole market is down and everybody is under pressure, if there is any specific support or help required at the vendor level, we will definitely extend that, said Tata Motors president and CFO C Ramakrishnan. He, however, hastened to add it does not necessarily mean that a financial package is being put together.... Elaborating steps to help suppliers, he said: In many cases we work with the vendors to help them to reduce cost or help them improve quality or help them improve their operating efficiencies, and such help and collaborative working with the vendors will always be there. He, however, did not specify any particular step that the company is undertaking to help suppliers to deal with the slowdown. It may take different shapes on a case-to-case basis, so there is no major announcement I have to make, Ramakrishnan said. Tata Motors medium and heavy commercial vehicle business is affected due to demand slump, while the passenger car segment is seeing low volume sales along with relatively low levels of capacity utilisation for most manufacturers, he added.

Earlier this month, Tata Motors reported a 52.2% year-on-year fall in consolidated net profit for the October-December quarter at Rs.1,636 crore, the first decline in five quarters, due to poor sales in domestic market and a margin squeeze at British subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover. Also, in the third quarter this fiscal, Tata Motors sold 2,05,291 vehicles against 2,31,328 units a year ago, down 11.3%.