Cabbies now account for only 10% of Tata's car sales

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