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-   -   Cabbies now account for only 10% of Tata's car sales (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/190791-cabbies-now-account-only-10-tatas-car-sales.html)

The fleet market in India now contributes to only 10% of the total cars sold by Tata Motors. Primary reason behind the downfall in the percentage is being regarded to the decline in orders from cab aggregators like Ola and Uber. According to reports, the overall taxi market in India stands at 12% of the total automotive sales. The app-based cab aggregators contribute 6% of this number and the rest are independent owners.

Mayank Pareek, President of passenger vehicle business unit at Tata Motors, said, “The share (in Tata Motors' total passenger car sales) has come down to 10% from 20-25% two years ago due to a slow growth in volumes and also because of an improvement in the share of individual taxi owners". He also stated that Tata Motors is looking to expand its market coverage by entering new vehicle segments.

Tata has been trying hard to shed the taxi image associated with its car models. Cars like Indica and Indigo were a hit among the cabbies. Even today, the company manufactures the Indica with a diesel engine just for the fleet market. Launched back in 1998, the Indica and its subsequent iterations were known for their good space, fuel efficiency and low cost of maintenance. Tata has now discontinued most, if not all, models of Indica, Indigo and Indigo CS. The recent models in the Tata line-up like the Tiago, Tigor, Hexa and the Nexon are focused primarily on the private car owners.

One more reason for this decline could be the aggressive intrusion of other manufacturers into the fleet market. Maruti Suzuki has the WagonR CNG in the taxi fleet and has also introduced the 2nd gen Dzire tour earlier this year. Hyundai has the prime series while Toyota offers the Etios sedan in the taxi segment. In addition to the diesel variant of the Xcent, Hyundai also introduced the factory fitted CNG variant of Xcent specially for the cab aggregators.



Source - ET Auto

Link to Team-BHP News

The Taxi image does not hurt Toyota, MSIL, Hyundai, Mahindra etc.
Not sure, why Tata is so bothered about shedding the Taxi image.

Lets face the reality. The Dzire/xcent/etios are better products than the Tata sedans for Taxi market - Indigo/CS.
Taxi operators are going for Dzires/Etios not because of Tata's desire to move away from taxi image, but rather because of the superiority of the competitor's products (in the Taxi space, especially cheap sedans category).

True. Indica and Indigo were apt for taxi segment then. They were spacious and fuel efficient.

Etios and Dzire are vastly superior products. That's why they captured the market.

Maruti and Toyota, especially Maruti, entered taxi market later, and later in their life cycle, Toyota atleast in India. There were Qualis taxis too but they were fewer in number. At that time Sumo and Commander were kings of the people's mover segment. Ambassador still ruled taxi market.

Maruti and Toyota are considered products to be desired way before they entered taxi market.

Firstly Sumo and later Indica when launched were quickly lapped up by taxi market. That's why Tata used to be considered a taxi company and many consider Tata cars to be primarily taxis and, coupled with bad quality and bad service, led to the tarnish of its name.

Now, Tata is saddled with adverse taxi reputation but lost the market.

In a nutshell, the fleet operators have totally ignored the Tata products since the last 2-3 years.
I had a conversation with one Uber driver sometime last year, who had an Indigo. He very clearly mentioned that the Indica cousins are now too outdated even for the taxi market and no one in his circle is even remotely considering them.
He did mention that he was very much interested in the Zest, but Tata did not allow taxi registration, hence he switched & has booked Ford Aspire, awaiting delivery.

Now we do see the Bolt and Zest open for taxi registration, but I think Tata's were too late. The taxi owners loyal to the brand were forced to move on to other brands. Since most cars on sale today are very reliable, once they get used to the new brand, they may not switch back to Tata.

Its their own doing. They were never really a very big hit in the personal car buying population. To wow the personal car buyers, they ditched the Taxi operators who were their loyal customer base and brought in good volumes too.

As is said - One in hand is better than two in the bush. Tata has learned this the hard way.

For the Tiago, Tigor & Nexon customer, it's not a bad thing.

As a potential target customer, to me the "Image" does hurt the prospects of the Etios and of late, even the Dzire and Grand i10.

Agree with your words but in a different way. Tata wanted to get rid of the taxi image. They wanted to be aspiring brand first. If only people buying your products are cab owners then there is a problem with that. Customers willing to pay top rupee will shy away. Tata might want to come with a dedicated product for cab segment.

The Indica eCS "Marina" (Yes an estate version of the eCS) just for the Taxi Market wouldn't be a bad idea.

That platform is too old. As pointed out by Vinit that platform is ignored by cab owners for the same reason.

If the present Tata products are offered to cabbies I am sure they will lap them up. Tata's low maintenance/ tough body shell make them favorites. With AMP, cost involved being low they should think about a dedicated product for cabbies. If that is not feasible, then keep updating products with new generation ones(not more than every 6/7 years) and release the old generation for the cabbies.

As a customer, I would simply avoid Indica and Indigos as they have been into the market for more than 10 years with same interiors and ride experience.

For me losing sales in taxi market ( to shed image ) and operator/customer , it’s a win win situation. :)

The right products at the right price. That's all that they need.

Hexa, Tiago and now Nexon - These three cars have really been turning the tide in favour of TATA Motors, taxi image/ past history etc notwithstanding!

Really looking forward to the next generation SUVs from TATA.

Tata can try and make good in taxi segment with the Bolt and the Zest. These two cars are no Indica and Indigo. They can hold on their own against Etios, Dzire and Accent. In cabin comfort and ride Zest is better than its competition.

Visual differentiation is a must. Zest and Bolt can cater to the taxi segment in present guise. Personal segment cars need to have external differentiation. More than three years after the launch, refresh is anyway about time. And 90 HP diesel a must for personal segment cars.

Was speaking to Tata dealer in my hometown (tier II city in Kerala) yesterday. They sold around 120 cars last month and around 90 of them were Tiago. Tiago saved Tata Motors from sinking in domestic market.

Interesting. So people are unwilling to touch a Tata car by even a barge pole because every taxi is Indica/Indigo. But Tata has least share now in taxi market. And this is a problem for Tata because they have missed the opportunity to carve out a share in taxi segment!

I wonder if the response in this thread would have been different if the headline read "yellow-boards account for 60% of Tata's car sales". No one would have then congratulated Tata for dominating a growing segment.

Rant apart, I think Tata has taken bold decision here to forego short-term gains of taxi sales for long-term brand building and they have started reaping the benefits slowly by the way of stable sales of Tiago.

aren't you saying everything in one go!

Tata has taxi image and Tata is late in reaching to taxi market.

I, as an individual customer, would not buy an Etios, a Dzire, a Wagon R or even the Xcent because there are way too many taxis of same models running around. But Toyota, Maruti and Hyundai do not suffer from this "Taxi image", problem is - Tata (not the individual models) suffer from this image as a whole. Toyota can sell Innova Crysta to taxi segment as well as to individual customers with no impact on brand image. Strangely, only Tata is looked down on this issue.

Tata does suffer from herd mentality against it.