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Old 15th February 2017, 12:06   #16
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re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

This was bound to happen.

Now that the BSNCAP is just around the corner and with the BS-VI norms scheduled to kick in within the next 2 years, Tata Motors would have struggled to make the Nano or any of the older cars compliant with either/both.

Already the Nano project was seeing considerable investments without any real ROI (return on investment) going back to the company. Despite getting a boxful of upgrades over the past 3-odd years, sales haven't exactly risen to satisfactory levels.

Also, the future path is marked for Tata - 2 new platforms - and the Nano doesn't fit on either of them. Pumping more money into older cars and make them future-compliant is something the company should best avoid, to steer away from any possible future losses.

So, instead of beating a dead horse and trying to squeeze some life out of it, it's best to let the poor thing have a honorable burial and move on.
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Old 15th February 2017, 12:09   #17
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re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

Slightly OT- I have another question. Wasn't one of the reasons for Tata Sons board to sack Cyrus Mistry, was his decision to discontinue Nano? And now we have Chandra doing the same. I am confused! The real reason we don't know!

Last edited by GTO : 15th February 2017 at 15:17. Reason: Small typo
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Old 15th February 2017, 12:37   #18
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re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

If you have seen the latest results for Tata Motors with some 96% YoY drop for Q3 the writing is there on the wall. Even if Tiago becomes a runaway success for Tata (which it is still not...) or the upcoming Hexa trumps the market still you can't have a bagful of old products that soak up huge funds in maintenance of the brand but do little in terms of RoI for the company. So it was bound to happen. The choice would have been to keep up with all their old and lagging to middling brands and distribute the kitty accordingly or kill all such brands and stick to a few potentially big winning ones and pour all the financial might behind those. So there...

However, here is a contrarian thought as well. Why not think a little out of the box? At least for cars like Indica and Indigo there is still a big market that exists. Organizations have been known to have worked and stayed the course with far lesser brands for years. The thing is that with the advent of Ubers and Olas of the world the Indicas and Indigos (particularly the former) have started seeing a brisk run off late. I see new temp plated Indicas with mobiles hanging on their windscreens almost on a daily basis on the roads. So why not move Indica/Indigo brands out of the PV division and let them be given to the CV division? CV division is an altogether different ballgame. Almost no major marketing spends, small boxy showrooms (if you can at all call them that; to me they look more like Real Estate agents' offices) with one sole "star attraction" behind the glass wall and two more parked outside on the little space outside the showroom. This way they continue to sell the brands without much of a spend on them except for compliance reasons and maintain their share in the taxi market.This will also help them reduce the costs of these cars even more. You do not necessarily need a felt lining for the roof, can do with far lesser electronics, simpler headlamps (no twin barrels), single rear bench rather than split seats and so on. All these can be explored to bring down the cost further.
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Old 15th February 2017, 15:10   #19
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re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

Good move, Indigo and Indica will be replaced by Zest and Bolt in commercial segment as well, that will make space for even better cars in the future for private owners. And with those old horses off the roads, it might help in changing the brand's perception to some extent.

Nano might have a lot of emotional connect to many owners but from a business standpoint, it doesnt make any sense to keep it going. Tata is finally taking some tough decisions which is good to know.
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Old 15th February 2017, 15:20   #20
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Re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

Tata's got very competent new products now. Time to trim the fat, out with the old! I support this move. Having a trimmer product line also means that the new cars receive more management bandwidth.

Quote:
Originally Posted by varunsangal View Post
but lose out big time on quality/reliability.

What Tata really needs is to get some engineers from JLR to train the Tata engineers and the production/QA team to be revamped to become world class.
Jaguar-Land Rover is hardly the last word in reliability. They have their own issues, most of which are more serious than Tata's cars.
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Old 15th February 2017, 16:54   #21
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Re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

Is Nano really value for money today? Why do they need Indica and Indigo when they have Vista and Zest?

On a side note:
So Mistry *WAS* right and Tata are actually taking forward his decisions!
- Tata Motors discontinues Nano
- Tata Steel sells specialty steel business in UK
- Tata Power issues NCDs for Welspun Renewables thereby asserting the acquisition

Last edited by anandpadhye : 15th February 2017 at 17:00.
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Old 15th February 2017, 17:23   #22
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Re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

Feel sorry for the Nano.
Conceptually brilliant and amazingly well packaged the poor little bug got short shifted by a lackadaisical marketing team and a plethora of other supporting environmental issues over which it had little control.

Few people know it: but the NANO, actually provided a wake - up call to quite a few global OEM's, made them re-visit the drawing board and taught them lessons in how to design & engineer a car frugally for Indian conditions.

Toyota Etios twins, Renault Kwid, Datsun Go, Datsun Redi - Go, Mahindra KUV 100: All took valuable inputs from the diminutive hatchback's frugal engineering and design approach and imbibed, some or a lot of those ideas, into their respective product development phases.

If there was ever a genuine "Make In India" product it is the Nano. A product born out of the confluence of the intellect of brilliant young Indian engineers working against impossible cost and performance targets and succeeding.

The Nano Is Dead. Long Live The Nano.
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Old 15th February 2017, 17:30   #23
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Re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

The Nano should not be discontinued.
After pouring so much money into it (R&D, marketing), it just does not make sense to discontinue.

Rather, the product should be improved:
1. Make it looks a little better. A desirable car will sell!
Hints/Cues from smart or aygo could be taken. Small is not always un-attractive.
But, for god sake, dont try to copy design elements from the same old indica again. And get rid of those auto-rickshaw size tyres!

2. Work on Refinement. It should be atleast as refined as it's competitors (erstwhile maruti 800, alto). Throw out the 2Cyl & plonk in a downsized 3Cyl from the tiago.

3. Work on Safety.
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Old 15th February 2017, 17:38   #24
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Re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

They want to be known not as the the company that sells the Indica, but the company that sells the Tiago. A good step, imho.

This decision should definitely improve their brand image. If not immediately, then surely in the time to come.

The talk about going with only two platforms, one for the cars and crossovers and the other for SUVs is logical.

However, they could have given a thought to introducing a commercial sub brand, for example TaCo (Tata Commercial ) and make the Indica/Indigo siblings wear that badge and keep minting this existing platform. Fiat, Mercedes, VW, all have a commercial arm, which does not affect the parent brand's image. But, I guess, they are not desperate as Tata in current times.
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Old 15th February 2017, 19:23   #25
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Re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

Looking at the way TATA killed the Aria to resurrect the HEXA, wouldn't be surprised to see model lined up to the gallows facing the same treatment in future.

At least for the NANO, TATA should have some future plans. It is still a wonderful product but faced uncertainty from its early stages. Hope TATA adds more zing to the NANO and helps bring it back to life with more sophistication.
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Old 16th February 2017, 01:00   #26
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Re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

Yieks! Tata is getting bold!

If you refer to the current Tata Bangalore on-road price list on Concorde Motors website http://www.concordemotors.com/onroadprice/bangalore you'd note that the super barebones Tiago XB Diesel is cheaper than the Indica. That could explain why they don't need the Indica anymore. But the move could hurt Tiago's image.

Now since the Indica and Indigo eCS must cost almost the same money to make (except the boot shape all else is similar), why not launch a super-barebones Indigo eCS exclusively for the taxi market and sell it through Tata's CV division (along with Venture and Winger)?

Nano they simply had to let go. The losses have already been written off and the name has such a poor brand equity being a brilliant piece of engineering that they cannot do much with it - at least within India. The upgrades required to let it compete in the European market (where it may be much better received) could make it financially unfeasible for Tata Motors in the current circumstances when the emphasis is on maximizing profitability and cut losses.

I wonder what happens to the Zest and Bolt. Could they perhaps extend Zest (from the current 4m) into a full-sized sedan to make room for the Tigor? Or can they add extra features to the Zest to make it more premium? Either way, Zest would need to find a way to co-exist with the Tigor. Remember that Maruti had difficulty selling the SX4 after launching the DZire, and they're the one company that has the easiest time handling multiple overlapping products in their portfolio. The Bolt should probably just be discontinued as I see no space for it to exist.
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Old 16th February 2017, 07:40   #27
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Re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
Jaguar-Land Rover is hardly the last word in reliability...
Historically the issue with Tata cars has been somewhat sub-standard manufacturing and issues with parts quality (plastic quality, noisy engines, high failure rate). While each company has its own issues, there may still be valuable lessons to be learnt from JLR in terms of upgrading the product engineering/manufacturing. Or, they can simply hire from Toyota to upgrade the manufacturing and hire German to build better products.

However, still agree with the general sentiment that this is a bold move by Tata and generally a step in the right direction.
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Old 16th February 2017, 11:19   #28
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Re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

Kill the Indica / Indigo.
Have the Zest / Bolt do taxi duty - I already see a few of them as OLA/Uber Taxis.
Have the Tiago / Tigor for personal vehicle sales.
And please pull out the Nano, and launch a souped up version as a LIFESTYLE car with a name other than Nano (Pixel anyone?)
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Old 16th February 2017, 12:09   #29
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Re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

As of now this seems to be a good move with calculated risk taken by TML. They have streamlined the production of Tiago and vendor supplies are well in control and thus ramping up of production of Tiago and Tigor would not be an issue as it was at the time of launch of Tiago.

These products are competent and appealing and above all carry sensitive pricing for the first time buyers. One of the master stroke is to attract first time buyers, which was closely guarded by MSIL and breached by Renault through KWID. Tiago has also got the foot in the door in that first time buyer segment and I am sure this can strengthen the sales and stabilize the brand.

Buyers are happy with the product and thus it is right for TML to part away with the old image. The revenue generated by Indica /Indigo can well be compensated by additional sales from other products in the portfolio.

The current portfolio is fresh, safe and can challenge the competition, while the Indica / Indigo was capturing the leftover market and that is something which was hitting the brand image of Tata; Even the taxi buyers don't consider Indica as their first choice.

All in all its a good move and if TML keeps on adding new cars in their portfolio (as promised), there should be no regret for this decision.

Cheers !

Last edited by i74js : 16th February 2017 at 12:11.
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Old 17th February 2017, 17:49   #30
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Re: Rumour: Tata Nano, Indica & Indigo to be discontinued

Pretty Audacious move , Indica and Indigo are no longer priced jewels for TATA but NANO can be retained and upgraded , I always see NANO as a replacement for Auto rickshaws.
Moreover TATA should move on from Indica platform.
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