[RavenAvi]

Big thanks to one of my sources (who wishes to remain anonymous) for this chart!

Among the volume players, Tata Motors is ranked at number 3 in terms of Year-On-Year growth percentage in monthly sales numbers (for the month of December 2017).

Jeep India tops the list, followed by Skoda India.

[Dr.Vikas]

A tweet by Tata Motors-

A positive start to the new year as Tata Motors registered a commendable performance in the Commercial and Passenger Vehicle segment.
Read more here:
(link: https://goo.gl/LsLZ7s) goo.gl/LsLZ7s

[greenhorn]

% sales growth for a particular month Y-o-Y is such a weak and small number that it is essentially noise. I mean if i were trying to dress up a weak sales performance, I would use such a metric.

If someone showed me this as an achievement, I would have laughed him out of the review.

Ideally i would have averaged it out over a year, or at least a quarter, or in case the improvement is recent, shown a trend, for at least a semblance of credibility.

[ACM]

Yep TATA performance is good this Dec, but the YOY growth % is a silly matrix. YOY growth in absolute terms would be more relevant as here you are comparing the absolute growth with that of the competition. So for example Skoda is ahead of them, but it does not matter and Mahindra is below them and how they do vs Mahindra, Toyota, Honda and Ford is what matters.

[UB_007]

While discussing with a close friend of mine having a Tata PC dealership, mentioned that Tata's business development team is strongly pushing its dealers to pump in more investments in their dealership to improve their outlook. The team is relying on the current sales volume and the expected trend. Dealers are reluctant on making any additional investments. The reason is evident that while countrywide sales have seen good numbers, many dealership sell not more than 10 to 15 cars a month and some close to 40.
With low margins in new car, service is what dealers seek for to make some profits and there is always a break even where if the dealer service a certain number of cars a day then there is a return of invest.
Again its a combination of development team which brings out excellent products and marketing team job to popularize the product.

Question is can individual dealerships plan their own marketing strategy in their area or its all centrally driven by tata motors and every dealership does the same? Some dealers might be smarter in marketing but may have restrictions to implement their ideas due to the central function.

Overall, it interlinked between frequent new products, customer relationship, customer experience (From the time a customer enters dealership) and service quality to have a sustained growth and of course all these 'Feel good' factor will change the Indica image that people currently have.
I feel if Tiago was sold with Suzuki badge then it would have outnumbered alto and wagon R

-UB

[RavenAvi]

Guenter Butschek, CEO & MD, Tata Motors, ahead of the 2018 Auto Expo:

https://youtu.be/TaxjnkuCzd8

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by UB_007

While discussing with a close friend of mine having a Tata PC dealership, mentioned that Tata's business development team is strongly pushing its dealers to pump in more investments in their dealership to improve their outlook. The team is relying on the current sales volume and the expected trend.

Dealers are reluctant on making any additional investments. The reason is evident that while countrywide sales have seen good numbers, many dealership sell not more than 10 to 15 cars a month and some close to 40.
With low margins in new car, service is what dealers seek for to make some profits and there is always a break even where if the dealer service a certain number of cars a day then there is a return of invest.

Honestly this low sales volumes leading to dealers milking existing customers for margins is a vicious cycle - this leads to lesser customer satisfaction, and lower resale, as service costs also get negatively impacted. But at the same time, I can understand the dealers apprehension - tata has cried wolf about the situation improving every time there was a new product launch (remember the same talk for both the vista launch, and the zest) And dealers having burnt their cash, might be a bit apprehensive.


Having said that, why not onboard more dealers? currently, tata dealerships are a bit of an oligopoly in most cities, and consequently, none of the dealers try too hard to beat each other. Current Dealers are happy to take the leads that come in, and and are not bothered in any way to compete. You might say the current volumes are not enough to justify more dealership , but i would say, look at the market. I am sure if some of them tried hard enough, you could get more marketshare, and the current dealers 'survival mode' sales strategies may be what are keeping your numbers this way. And they dont place any additional risk on tata motors, other than negatively impacting relationships with existing dealers - but if you remember, they are the ones who are thinking this won't happen, and what better way to prove them wrong?

Most car brands are in similar situations, but if tata wants to do something about it, they can, instead of trying to squeeze dealers even more

[RavenAvi]

Pratap Bose, Head of Design, Tata Motors, in conversation with Zigwheels and sharing an exclusive sneak peek into Tata's Impact design 2.0.

The aim of Impact 2.0 is to take things a step further. According to Bose, the Indian car market is unlike any other in the world. To stand out in such an extremely competitive market, one needs something unique that will grab the attention of the masses. Pratap highlighted this point by stating that the design language of a brand is the maintainer of the family heritage. He went on to say “You’ll see in Impact 2.0 all the three exterior design elements - slingshot, DLO and humanity line - they’re all there, all recognisable but they’re more evolved. It’s not that the engineering team came up with something and then handed it over to the design team and said, ‘Now please put an attractive cover over this’,” he commented. The design team was involved in developing the AMP platform from day one. “It’s absolutely fundamental to understand that very few design teams are involved in the concept of a platform itself because the platform happens every 15-18 years - you don’t change a platform every 2-3 years.” he added.

The AMP can underpin front-wheel-drive cars ranging from 3.8 metres to 4.4 metres in length, such as small hatchbacks to large crossovers. The Q platform, meanwhile, can underpin vehicles ranging from 4.4m to 4.8m in length, which makes it ideal for full-size SUVs. The AMP can easily accommodate 18-inch wheels while the Q platform can take wheels up to 21 inches in diameter. This flexibility opens up the possibility of Tata cars being exported to more markets. The Advanced Modular Platform will allow the carmaker to go in for a variety of body shapes, wheelbase and track sizes, making the possibilities endless. Tata will also be looking at developing cars that can fit in between segments. The concepts present at the Auto Expo could give us a glimpse into what we can expect to see from the Indian manufacturer in the years to come. However, Bose confirmed that the Impact 2.0 will carry forward the floating screen display of the Nexon. The screen will not get taller but will definitely be wider.

[Latheesh]

They were suppose to show us the new premium hatchback today. I checked online and no update on this till now. Did they announce any time schedule? Hope they don't disappoint us showing just part of the car.

[shortbread]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

They were suppose to show us the new premium hatchback today. I checked online and no update on this till now. Did they announce the time?. Hope they don't disappoint us showing just part of the car.

They wont show anything, I think it will only be a sneak peak of upcoming models each day. It's like automotive cabaret, so hold on to your horses!

[RavenAvi]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Pratap Bose, Head of Design, Tata Motors, in conversation with Zigwheels and sharing an exclusive sneak peek into Tata's Impact design 2.0.

The L550 platform which underpins the Discovery Sport, adapted according to Indian conditions by Tata Motors and soon to be seen on the Q50x twins at the 2018 Auto Expo:

Video released. A very interesting watch:

https://youtu.be/Bkqi1TTsp0

[Latheesh]

Tata Motors January 2018 passenger car domestic sales numbers - 20,055. That is very impressive!

[RaghuVis]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

Tata Motors January 2018 passenger car domestic sales numbers - 20,055. That is very impressive!

WOW!
That is almost 8k more than what they did last Jan. Mahindra numbers are definitely going to be in the same range and so again it's a neck to neck fight for 3rd spot. Absolutely amazing this is!

[kavu75]

Originally Posted by RaghuVis

Mahindra numbers are definitely going to be in the same range and so again it's a neck to neck fight for 3rd spot. Absolutely amazing this is!

Very impressive numbers from Tata. This month Mahindra got the 3rd spot. In the passenger vehicles segment Mahindra sold 23,686 vehicles in January 2018.

[ashutoshb]

Posting this pic from their Twitter page.

It appears they have been improving across the board.