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| The country's largest auto maker, Tata Motors, today said it will launch a light commercial vehicle which will be smaller than its LCV Ace. The company has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 10,000 crore for the next 2-3 years. "We are seriously looking at a smaller Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) than Ace which has a capacity of carrying a load of 750 kg," Tata Motors Managing Director P M Telang told reporters on the sidelines of the SIAM annual convention here. The company would roll out the proposed smaller LCV from its Pantnagar facility, which has a production capacity of 2.25 lakh units per annum. When asked about the company's capex outlay, Telang said: "At any point of time the company works with a capex of Rs 6,000-10,000 crore for a 2-3 year period." He however, declined to give details how the company would utilise this amount. Tata Motors would roll out a new Indigo within the next 2-3 months, Telang said. On sales, Telang said: "Our LCV segment is doing good, but the medium and heavy commercial segment is flat in the first four months of this fiscal. Passenger car segment is growing faster." The company is expecting its overall sales to remain in the positive territory during this fiscal, he said, adding the total production utilisation of its plants is about 65 per cent at present. On its small car Nano, Telang said: "The production at the Sanand plant in Gujarat will start by the end of this financial year." |
| NEW DELHI -- Tata Motors Ltd., India's largest automaker by sales, said Friday it plans to introduce another light truck, smaller than its sub-one-ton Ace model, to capitalize on demand for the vehicle. "There has been some demand for a product in that category and we are looking at developing one such model," P.M. Telang, managing director for Tata Motors' India operations, told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference. The Ace, one of the highest-selling vehicles of Tata Motors, was first introduced in 2005 to compete with three-wheeled goods-carrying vehicles from Bajaj Auto Ltd., Piaggio and Mahindra & Mahindra. Light truck sales in India have been less affected by the economic downturn than those of heavier vehicles, with medium and heavy truck sales sliding 32% during April-July 2009 to 44,774 units, while those of light trucks rose 20% to 66,421 units. Tata Motors currently makes 15,000 Ace vehicles per day at a factory in Pantnagar in the northern state of Uttarakhand, Mr. Telang said. He added that the automaker - which controls U.K.-based Jaguar and Land Rover - is witnessing faster growth in car sales compared to trucks and plans to introduce an upgraded variant of its Indigo sedan by December. Mr. Telang said, however, that sales of medium and heavy trucks returned to last year's levels in July. "We are hopeful that by the end of this year, we will register some growth in this segment as well," Mr. Telang said. He said weak monsoon rains are expected to hit the company's vehicle sales this year. "If monsoons were good this year, I would have expected a good sales growth, but now we are cautiously optimistic as certain sectors like steel and cement have started picking up," he said. India's monsoon rains were 29% below the 50-year average during the June 1 to Aug. 11 period, a meteorological department official said last week. Mr. Telang said a dedicated facility for the Nano minicar at Sanand in western Gujarat state is on schedule and trial production is likely to start in January-February. The company currently produces up to 125 Nano minicars - the world's cheapest car - per day at its Pantnagar factory. "We will take 10 months from January to fully ramp up the (Sanand) factory," he said. Tata Motors shifted operations to Sanand after abandoning a planned site last October at Singur, in the eastern state of West Bengal, following violent protests over the acquisition of disputed farmland. Tata Motors plans to reach an annual manufacturing capacity of 250,000 Nano cars at the Sanand factory. The company's chairman Ratan Tata said Tuesday that capacity will eventually be increased to 350,000 cars. |
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Originally Posted by akhilesh51
(Post 1455505)
A very reliable source marked that the launch of Indigo might just be very close to Diwali than December |
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Originally Posted by anmol2k4
(Post 1455669)
More reliable than Mr Telang ? The only guy that I can think of is Ratan Tata himself. But I too hope Indigo is launched sooner. |
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Originally Posted by superveloce
(Post 1456850)
hey guys i just returned for the weekend from pune. i can tell you, i have sat inside the new indigo vista. and i must say i am impressed. it is spacious as ever. the dials and instrument cluster have been shifted onto the drivers side from the centre. the centre console gets a bluetooth enabled music system with a number pad and call and disconnect buttons for the phone. above the music system is a blue backlight multifunction display which shows you the average efficiency and range, alongwith a couple of more statistics. the boot is huge and almost linea like huge. headlights are more upmarket than indica vista. chrome treated grill and restyled bumpers. even the base version has biege interiors. the vista sedan gets 1.4 petrol engine from the linea/punto detuned to 85 ps. also the vista sedan shares the same 1.3 multijet with the indica vista at 75 ps. on road target price is 7 lakhs. oh and i have also seen the indicruz from inside and outside although thats the prototype being tested. will post in appropriate thread about that. *i do have pictures but im not at liberty to publish them here. |
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