Tata relying on small towns & old cars to bounce back

Tata Motors has been experiencing a mixed bag of sales performances with its newly launched products. The Zest has been doing relatively well in the compact sedan space ever since its launch, but the Bolt on the other hand has turned out to be a slow seller mainly due to its high price tag. To tackle the slow growth, Tata had recently decided to sell its older vehicles including the Indica and Indigo to the commercial sector to keep the inflow of money steady.

In line with this, the company has now decided to expand its businesses in smaller towns in order to garner more sales from its old models. Tata is also working on implementing new mobile workshops that will give customers the added convenience of getting their vehicles serviced at home. These moves are being taken to regain the market share that they lost in the domestic passenger vehicle segment in India.

Currently present in 359 cities across the country, the company is targeting double-digit growth in sales this fiscal year and will be opening one dealership everyday from July onwards, adding 200 showrooms this year itself as a part of its plan to have 1500 dealerships within the next five years. Their ultimate goal is to be present in all 651 districts of India.

Tata is looking towards smaller towns to optimize sales with the help of older car models including the likes of the Indica hatchback and Indigo sedan because there is no segregation of the commercial and personal vehicle segments in such places. When the industry grew at 5.5 percent in the second half of the last fiscal year, Tata experienced a growth of 15 percent, which according to them is not duly because of the Zest and Bolt but also from their pre-existing models.

The leadership of the Indian manufacturer is also happy to continue offering older models in their portfolio because their sales targets will only be achievable if they continue retailing the same. Tata has also acknowledged the fact that they are addressing the issue of launching a compact SUV in the near future and their design teams in UK, Italy and Pune are also working to develop new products.