Team-BHP - V Sumantran resigns as head of Tata Motors

Tata Motors head of the passenger cars and research divisions has resigned. IMHO, this is a good development for Tata Motors as the company seemed to lack dynamism or direction under Sumantran who came in AFTER the Indica was developed.

Tata needs to get more aggressive both as a manufacturer and as a seller of passenger cars.

Kind courtesy The Economic Times:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/1202696.cms

Tata Motor’s V Sumantran steps down as director

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2005 01:49:12 AM]

MUMBAI: Truck and car maker Tata Motors announced on Tuesday that V Sumantran, executive director in charge of passenger cars and research, has resigned from the company due to personal reasons.

Mr Sumantran joined Tata Motors’ car business and engineering research centre as executive director in November ’01. He was heading the company’s project to launch a small car for Rs 1 lakh. He was also instrumental in the launch of the Indigo, the estate version of the Indica called Marina, the CRDi Safari and its venture with Rover to export the Indica.

Last week, Tata Motors elevated Ravi Kant, ED-commercial vehicles, to the post of managing director. “It has been a privilege to have worked with Ratan Tata and been a part of Tata Motors during the turnaround phase of the company’s recent performance,” Mr Sumantran said in a statement.

“Mr Sumantran has been a member of the senior management team at Tata Motors and has contributed significantly to the company during his association,” Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata group, said in his statement. Tata Motors is preparing for launch of a Rs 1 lakh car. To keep prices low, the Tatas are talking to India’s two-wheeler component manufacturers to create a basic four-seater.

The Indica project was developed for $350m. An equivalent project in the US or Europe would have cost at least three times as much, Mr Sumantran once said. Mr Sumantran joined US auto major General Motor’s research division immediately after completing his PhD.

“GM had a very progressive attitude to R&D, engineering and developing, the skills needed to survive in the business. It allowed us to work on specialised areas, like aerodynamics,” he once told ET.

He was at GM Research and later at group company Saab, where he earned the necessary experience in running an independent manufacturing operation. At Tata Motors, he plunged into restructuring the product portfolio. “We are a company with a two-vehicle platform and the two engine families that go with it. We are working on more models on the Indica platform because the investment in that architecture is nicely located in terms of the points of destinations,” he said.

Our UV platform will also see fresh impetus because that business is strategic to our operations and a logical springboard for exports. Both the domestic as well as the export range will see upgrades,” he said.