[RavenAvi]

The Indian auto giant, Tata Motors, revealed through the statistics of the stock exchange on Wednesday that it had spent a whopping Rs.2,204 crores on various Research and Development projects in the 2015-16 fiscal year.

These expenses come on the back of developing all-new designs and improved, feature-rich products for the Indian market while the company goes through a revamping spree across all it's offered models.

In percentage terms, Tata Motors' total R&D costs are about 6.07% of it's net turnover of the entire financial year.

However, this cost figure is set to be raised even further for the 2016 fiscal year as Tata Motors is in the process of developing even more new products for future launches - the Kite 5 sedan, the Nexon crossover, the Hexa MPV project, and two premium SUV-based crossovers codenamed "Q501" & "Q502" in collaboration with Jaguar Land-Rover.

Business Standard & Rush Lane

[chaith.turbo]

Wow!! That's great news. It really shows their commitment to build better cars.

I hope they also invest enough in improving the ASS and dealership experience, this is probably the only area they are lacking.

[Amit_breakfree]

With positive news like this, I hope TATA is able to improve its fortune. From a lack-luster attitude which they were following aimlessly for the better part of last decade, their recent steps seem to be in the right direction.

Tiago, Kite, Nexon, Hexa, these all seem to be very good products and if they were from other manufacturer like Maruti or Hyundai, I would have expected that they would set the sales charts on fire. But still I hope these turn out be success stories so that TATA can come back in the game and hopefully take the game one step higher this time.

All the best to TATA and kudos to them for their sustained efforts.

[Vishal.R]

And it shows.

If We just compare their cars from different generations Indica V2/Indigo -> Manza/Vista -> Zest/Bolt/Tiago, We can surely see the improvement.

In certain areas (Small capacity diesel / fit and finish etc. ) they are actually doing better than companies like Suzuki.

Their engines have also improved quite a lot. Look at the reviews of Tiago diesel.

Although their petrol engines might still need some more improvement, but if we compare with earlier petrol we can't deny improvement. They have one turbo charged petrol engine in production, since this would be the direction in near future for petroleum dependent engines.

[Akshay1234]

That would also include JLR if I'm not mistaken. I'm sure a large chunk of that would be JLR R&D rather than Tata motors.

[greenhorn]

If only they had invested some of that money into a serious effort to improve their service quality as well, they should have been much better off.
It seems tata is still somewhere in between the product & selling concept - They are still trying to build a better mousetrap - so to speak. Wish they weren't so myopic and looked for bottlenecks elsewhere in their strategy.

[GrammarNazi]

Such heavy investment would've been initiated since the previous (K Slym) leadership so they could revamp product offerings.

They really did go lengths to research from every credible source on learning where they could improve.

Yet they seem nothing close to being on time at reacting to the market. Hope they launch brilliant products & fast!

Also hope they improve internal controls on service center operations & bring some of their dodgy service advisors back in line.

Btw, how come Maruti Suzuki doesn't figure in such a list, especially given the large product range they offer !? AFAIK India is their primary market (although I guess they give us tertiary treatment in engine options).

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Vishal.R

And it shows.

If We just compare their cars from different generations Indica V2/Indigo -> Manza/Vista -> Zest/Bolt/Tiago, We can surely see the improvement.

Agreed, but I feel Zest and Bolt both were earlier generation products (facelifts at best), which were unnecessary. I had been telling from before the launch that these two were destined to fail in the market. Hexa will too, because they have wasted the biggest resource, time, in bringing out what is essentially an Aria facelift.

Tiago marks the real paradigm shift for TATA motors as a new generation car manufacturer. Looking forward to the sedan and Nexon.

[damodar]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

That would also include JLR if I'm not mistaken. I'm sure a large chunk of that would be JLR R&D rather than Tata motors.

No this R&D expenditure is of TATA Motors India. Check out this link JLR expenditure for the previous year 2014-15 is 3147million pounds that is more than 15 times TATA motors india's expenditure!

http://www.jaguarlandrover.com/gl/en...fiscal-201415/

[shashanka]

This is certainly good and heartening news. I just wish, keeping my fingers crossed, that this huge investment pays off in the market-place. Of course their JLR arm is doing good business, but as a swadeshi at heart, I can't help wishing that Tata does well in the domestic passenger car market under their own Tata Motors brand name.

[prakhar1998]

This is extremely positive news. Seeing Tata re-emerge after going through so much turmoil.
Having deep pockets certainly helps a company turn itself around.

But I believe Tata in its essence also needs to change that way it markets itself and provides after sales and service support.

These two aspects make or break a company in India. Firstly, their blunder after the image of the Tata Nano certainly ruined their reputation, then their reliability issues have made a significant dent on their sales and image.

They perhaps need to advertise and prove the reliability of their vehicles and above all improve their dealer network, because honestly, it is highly incompetent.

But a step in the right direction no doubt. Good things to come! Plus, they need to make big out of their relationship with Jag and Land Rover. These two marquees are highly desirable in India, and Tata can seriously exploit their positive image to set its poor image to the right track.

[balajisv]

Except Hero Motocorp, no other Auto maker features in the list.

Hope Tata Motors makes very good use of the investment and launches 'state of the art' cars to us.
No doubt the Zest, Bolt and Tiago look way above the competition cars!

[GTO]

Tata is surely making strides in product development & competence .

By the way guys, please note that the chart is based on financial data available with the stock market, hence it only includes car companies listed in India (Maruti, Tata, Mahindra...). What it does not include are unlisted car companies like Hyundai and gang. Though I don't think Hyundai India's R&D expenditure could be in the ballpark of Tata's spends, can't say for sure unless we have an absolute number.

[Captain Haddock]

TATA was always innovative and had good R&d. The biggest issue is quality control coupled with marketing and service issues which continue to plague owners.

While speaking about R&D of TATA we should remember that they were able to bring cars like the ESTATE and SIERRA back in the early 90s when we were lost in Ambassadors and Premiers. These two cars were so much ahead of it's time and with better quality control they would have enjoyed longer production runs.

The first turbo diesel was introduced by TATA in the late 90s in their sierras and safaris not even the LANCER which was the best selling car in that segment had a turbo but again the reliability played spoil sport.

Then I think they decided rather than trying to capture the top segment with cars like ESTATE and SIERRA it was better to sell cars in a lower segment where their faults would be tolerated much better by the target customer. This paradigm shift may have resulted in cars like INDICA & INDIGO which were far from innovative products but quite mechanically reliable.

Now they have introduced a turbo petrol, that too in a sub 4 lakh car which is quite remarkable and could be the result of good R&D.

Last but not the least the NANO is the best engineering feat from TATA. It's quite unconventional yet reliable and practical as a city car.

[speedguy]

Lots of people ask why it takes time to launch the product in the market, well the answer lies within those figures.
Launching a vehicle from scratch design to compete with the world is not as simple as layman thinks. a layman can see that Maruti Suzuki launches a new car almost every third month, because they don't have to do anything.They can simply pick a model which has been designed,tested & launched by Suzuki (Japan) & just launch it. Which is not the case with Tatas & Mahindras. Please understand, although it is not rocket science, but certainly not as easy as typing whatever comes to mind sitting on a comfortable leather chair.

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