[RavenAvi]

Mumbai-based domestic auto major, Tata Motors, is all set to invest $1 billion (around 6,800 crores) into it's passenger vehicle division, in the span of the next 3 years.

The Tata Sons board approved this investment proposal recently, which will see Tata Motors add new production lines and do a complete revamp of existing ones, at it's Pune and Sanand plants.

These new production lines will cater to at least a dozen new models which will be built in the next five years, which will be based on the Alpha and Omega modular platforms.

This will be Tata Motors' biggest ever investment in the passenger vehicle business.

A manufacturing line is already being installed at J Block in Pune plant to manufacture the Q5 range of SUVs to be rolled out by the end of the year.

Guenter Butschek, Tata Motors MD said the company doesn’t give independent investment plans for the passenger vehicle or commercial vehicle business. Tata had said in the past that it would invest Rs 4,000 crore every year in both passenger and commercial vehicles business. The new investment plan boosts the passenger side of the business significantly with over Rs 6,000 crore being spent on it in three years.

The investment is a part of Tata’s turnaround 2.0 strategy which focuses on winning sustainably in passenger vehicles, the MD said in response to ET’s questions. “We continue to fortify our capacity utilisation, sales numbers, and cost structures. We are headed towards along-term objective of accelerated growth. This will be accomplished through product portfolio expansion, network expansion, enhanced quality operations and superlative customer service,” he added.

“There is a strong tailwind for brand Tata in the car business and positive sentiment within the organisation with growing volumes,” said a person, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Unlike the past, the company has managed to break into the consideration set of people. With a new range of products under two architectures, Tata Motors will cover over 95 per cent of the Indian passenger vehicle market and will play a much serious role in the market.”

ET Auto

[airbender]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Mumbai-based domestic auto major, Tata Motors, is all set to invest $1 billion (around 6,800 crores) into it's passenger vehicle division, in the span of the next 3 years.

The Tata Sons board approved this investment proposal recently, which will see Tata Motors add new production lines and do a complete revamp of existing ones, at it's Pune and Sanand plants.

These new production lines will cater to at least a dozen new models which will be built in the next five years, which will be based on the Alpha and Omega modular platforms.

This will be Tata Motors' biggest ever investment in the passenger vehicle business.

Attachment 1780593

ET Auto

A big positive. But do not expect capacity to go up rapidly until 2020. The new SUV's will be manufactured from Pune. Existing lines have enough capacity to take care of X451. Its only when a economy hatch below Tiago is launched they would need new capacity. So that might not happen until 2020. 12 new models in 3 to 5 years sounds great.

[2000rpm]

Also, the 1 billion value is not considered very large in the Auto industry. Moderately large, yes. But good to see the fight back from Tata.

[LandCruiser]

Among all automakers I have least faith in Tata. They need a brand makeover, design makeover for their cars (a design language that breaks away from the Indica shape). They may be owning Jaguar but in the Indian car scene they are just a mass maker of taxis and not really appealing for personal car buyers (Tiago, Hexa) all are just one offs not very consistent line up of cars across segments.

Even Mahindra has done a very decent job to capture the market (personal cars) than Tata. Though they have gone for a overkill of SUV models (KUV is a bit too extreme step).

[the_skyliner]

$1B in three years is a huge investment. Kudos to TATA for such a commitment.

This will change a lot of things for TATA right from product development to after sales. The current MD is well known for his operational and quality excellence in previous jobs. And now with cash in hand, things can move much faster.

[aniyo]

Few years ago no one wanted to buy a TATA, not that they had a great portfolio either. Last few years have seen really good launches by TATA namely, Tiago, Hexa, Nexon which are doing well for their segments. One of my friends is a die hard fan of TATA. He had a Indica Vista and now he is buying a Hexa
Its always good that your local companies do well, it helps to keep the money within the country. Suzuki and Toyota get disproportionate loyalty payments from their India subsidiaries.
I want Indian companies to do well. Hope next few years will be good for them.

[coldice4u]

Originally Posted by LandCruiser

Among all automakers I have least faith in Tata. They need a brand makeover, design makeover for their cars (a design language that breaks away from the Indica shape). They may be owning Jaguar but in the Indian car scene they are just a mass maker of taxis and not really appealing for personal car buyers (Tiago, Hexa) all are just one offs not very consistent line up of cars across segments.

Even Mahindra has done a very decent job to capture the market (personal cars) than Tata. Though they have gone for a overkill of SUV models (KUV is a bit too extreme step).

Such viewpoints are really unfortunate when you realise that after the stoppage of production of the Indi-twins, none of the vehicles in the current line up being sold are selling as taxis now, apart from a few Zests ! TATA seems to have temporarily shifted focus away from the commercial market. Infact after the diesel ban here in the NCR region,the majority of cabs are from the Maruti and Hyundai stable !

[Nonstop-driver]

Originally Posted by aniyo

Its always good that your local companies do well, it helps to keep the money within the country. Suzuki and Toyota get disproportionate loyalty payments from their India subsidiaries.

This works well when the indigenous businesses are leading from the front. In our case, the local companies are fighting for the leftovers while supposedly Indian group - MSL, is still largely dependant on its Japanese counterpart.

Your argument holds well for auto-ancillary industry where India has a dog in the fight but $1bn won't change it for the auto segment especially at a time when we are looking for dramatic revolutions in the industry.

[akshay380]

Originally Posted by LandCruiser

Among all automakers I have least faith in Tata. They need a brand makeover, design makeover for their cars (a design language that breaks away from the Indica shape). They may be owning Jaguar but in the Indian car scene they are just a mass maker of taxis and not really appealing for personal car buyers (Tiago, Hexa) all are just one offs not very consistent line up of cars across segments.

Even Mahindra has done a very decent job to capture the market (personal cars) than Tata. Though they have gone for a overkill of SUV models (KUV is a bit too extreme step).

Don't know why but this statement seems a straight lift from 2013 when Tata was going bonkers. Circa 2018, looking at Tiago, Tigor and Nexon sales, I don't think too many people give a damn about taxi image.

[Dr.Suraj]

Originally Posted by LandCruiser

Among all automakers I have least faith in Tata. They need a brand makeover, design makeover for their cars (a design language that breaks away from the Indica shape). They may be owning Jaguar but in the Indian car scene they are just a mass maker of taxis and not really appealing for personal car buyers (Tiago, Hexa) all are just one offs not very consistent line up of cars across segments.

Even Mahindra has done a very decent job to capture the market (personal cars) than Tata. Though they have gone for a overkill of SUV models (KUV is a bit too extreme step).

Few years too late, are we?
They DID need a new design language. Which was Impact Design Philosophy 1.0 (Tiago, Tigor, Nexon). Which has now upgraded to 2.0 (45X, H5X, H7X).
Tiago, Tigor, Nexon are not sold as Taxis. Neither is Nano. Hexa(?) is also not yet available to fleet operators, although some reports suggest it might be opened up for sale to them. Only the Zest, Bolt and perhaps Indigo eCS and Indica V2 (if someone even opts for them) - are available to fleet operators.

So now, they have a B segment hatch that beats a Suzuki at it's game (Tiago has trumped Celerio sales for quite a few months now). They have 2 compact sedans. They have a compact SUV that is consistently in the race for the #2 spot... And the remaining gaps in the product portfolio are expected to be filled up by the 45X, H5X, H7X and a sedan based on the 45X....