[v1kram]

Mod Note : Please continue the discussion in the February Sales Analysis Thread.

February seems to be (new worry) very bad for TATA, sales at new lows.
Passenger vehicle domestic sales : 10,613 units (combined from Nano to Aria).
Source: http://tatamotors.com/media/press-releases.php?id=839

OT: Few years before, Indica range was alone selling 10,000+ units but now its a combined effort.

[akhilesh51]

For this post, my quota of smilies should be more... This is shocking for the stature of the company and its product portfolio.

On the brighter side (if there is any!), the new management seems to understand the situation and the steps are underway in right direction. Almost undoubtedly, product quality is far superior, there are new products in line, some that will see light within this year and really this has to now be a job of raising the phoenix.

Really, if there was one Indian company that could rise from the ashes, Tata is it. How quickly? That is the real question and worry.

I hope there is more to this story and Tata can find itself out of the mess... and quickly please!

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team: Post Edited. Smilie usage is restricted to two per post on Team-BHP. Please refrain from using excessive smilies. Please follow board rules.

[anurag.somani]

Tata Motors Press release/March 1st, 2012
The passenger vehicles business reported a total sale and distribution offtake of 36,536 nos. (34,832 Tata + 1,704 Fiat) in the domestic market in February 2012

A drop of 70% on YoY sales. They are facing an existional crisis!

[sarathlal]

Tata's dismal show is not sudden. It has been on a steady decline, right from the start of this financial year, April 2012.
And I think, in last months' car sales report, this was the most widely discussed topic as well.

But for the company's existence stake, this will not matter much, as for Tata, the passenger car portfolio holds much less significance compared to the heavy duty portfolio.

[drmohitg]

The problem is the complete lack of innovtion. Even the railways have probably launched newer looking trains. But the Indica and Indigo have looked the same since the day of there launches. In a market where there are 15-20 new cars getting launched each year and people ready to change there rides every 2 or 3 years, Tata's have somehow got left far behind. A mere addition of some stickers and alloys would not help. What they want is to launch newer looking cars rather than just making tiny changes to the existing Indica. The best example that comes to my mind is the Honda city. Since the time of its launch Honda has updates the model every few years to keep things fresh. And it shows in the sales figures with the car never looking old w.r.t to its competition.

[anu21v]

Its not only with Tata, even the Ford Volumes seems to have fallen big time!!! 44% Drop for Ford India Domestic Sales.

[ashutoshb]

They have said this before, that they are working on it, and have several product launches in the pipeline.

Till the time they have something new to offer or have a brilliant marketing game plan for its existing portfolio, which creates an interest in the customers, this steady decline is likely to continue.

Even a fresh bumper / sticker job takes months, so this was on expected lines.

[nurni76]

Originally Posted by anu21v

Its not only with Tata, even the Ford Volumes seems to have fallen big time!!! 44% Drop for Ford India Domestic Sales.

So has maruti's sale that has dipped close to 10%. Looks like Feb has been a bad month for the sector as a whole.

[zenren]

Everyone including Maruti has taken a huge hit in Feb. Waiting for the monthly sales trend thread to see if the overall positions might have some changes this time around.

[mjothi]

I was waiting to see what wonder Mr.Karl slym would do to the TATA motors. May be I am in hurry, but so far, no visible results. Very sad indeed.

Anyway, looking at the overall auto industry slump, I would say its all due to inflation, interest rates and fuel policy that has got all of us here.

[romeomidhun]

Tata is not able to withstand the onslaught of newer entries into the taxi market like Toyota Etios, Liva, Maruti Tour and M&M Verito.

On a lighter note, Tata is getting for what they did to screw up the sales of FIAT cars when they were in the same showrooms! Tata salesmen were enthusiastically promoting Tata cars over FIAT.

[pganapathy]

In terms of pure numbers probably not. The economy does not seem to be booming or growing a lot, and a look see of the roads does not indicate massive amounts of new vehicles. Given this, it is critical for manufacturers to ensure they don't lose market share.

Tata is one that is losing market share in a big way. Of course they are lucky enough that they have enough money from the rest of the tata group that they can afford big investments and punts into the future while running current losses, but even that will end some day. Just ask vijay mallya who got tired of using UB funds in KF airlines.

I hope the next lot of vehicles tata launch are fully tested, because if they use the market as guinea pigs, their numbers will keep falling

[infotech58]

TATA is solely responsible for this. How can it expect to sell its products without being innovative, competitive. I agree that the quality of TATA products is improving but the quality they are delivering now is where they should have been years ago. Also, I fail to remember even one car from TATA which has gone through a total refresh/redesign - Safari is almost the same (even the Strome), Indica/Indigo have been the same, SUMO seems to live forever. It is time for TATA to stop obsessing with the existing products/names and launch radically different and fresh products.

[aroop]

Originally Posted by zenren

Everyone including Maruti has taken a huge hit in Feb. Waiting for the monthly sales trend thread to see if the overall positions might have some changes this time around.

Tata motors:
Jan 2013: 15209 [data from last month's analysis]
Feb 2013: 10613, a drop of 30.2%

Maruti:
Jan 2013: 103026 [from last month's analysis]
Feb 2013: 97955, a drop of 4.9% [from Maruti website]

Looks like Maruti has been comparatively less affected.

For details, waiting for the official sales analysis.

[unk9ja]

TOI reports today Toyota has overtaken Tata in sales in February. Now this is one more bitter blow to the Tatas'.