Tata Motors Plans to Expand with New CNG and Electric Cars: MD Shailesh Chandra
Tata Motors is developing several CNG and electric vehicles, even as the automaker expects passenger vehicle industry growth to slow to 5-7 percent in the current fiscal year, down from 27 percent in the previous fiscal year due to a drop in pent-up demand.
The company will also add new nameplates
“There’s going to be a steep increase in the EV volumes. We are expanding our portfolio in the CNG segment, so I think we have several levers, which are going to increase our volumes, as well as market share,” Managing Director, of Passenger Vehicle and Electric Vehicles at Tata Motors, Shailesh Chandra said during an analyst call.
“We are going to bring a CNG variant (of Punch) with the twin-cylinder technology and this is going to be unique in the market. We are also planning to bring EVs, so we are very confident that these two products will be able to sustain the volumes,” he noted.
“We have showcased that in Auto expo, Curvv, Sierra, these are new nameplates, which are going to get launched,” Chandra added.
Tata Motors introduced the CNG version of its premium hatchback Altroz earlier this month, with an introductory price of Rs 7.55 lakh (ex-showroom all-India).
However, Chandra anticipates that growth in the passenger vehicle industry will slow as “pent-up demand in the passenger vehicle segment has now clearly gone down, barring certain new launches in a few popular sports utility vehicle segments.”
“This year (2023-24), growth would be slightly moderate, in the 5 to 7% range. But I’m confident that growth will resume in the double digits after this fiscal year,” said Chandra.
According to him, the increase in vehicle prices due to the RDE (real driving emissions) transition could have an impact on demand this fiscal year.
“From ‘Tata Motors’ side, the way we are preparing ourselves is to focus on demand generation through micro-market focus and actions to improve the conversion rates,” he noted.
According to Chandra, the company is also expanding its portfolio of CNG and EV models, with both segments expected to grow significantly this year.
“We should be the beneficiary of that. And of course, we’re driving margin improvement through an institutionalized cost-reduction initiative,” he added.
Tata Motors reported 5.4 lakh units dispatched to dealers in FY23, its best year ever. In comparison to FY22, the company’s wholesales increased by about 45 percent year on year.
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