Tata Motors aims double digit growth in passenger vehicle segment

Tata Motors expects to achieve good double digit growth similar to last year in the passenger vehicle segment in 2018-19, driven by increasing demand from younger customers.

“Previous two fiscals have been good for us. We have outgrown the industry. In FY17, we saw a growth of 22% in passenger vehicles, which was more than the industry growth of 9.5%. Likewise, in FY 18, our growth was almost 23% compared to the industry growth of 8%,” S.N. Barman, vice-president (sales, marketing & customer support), passenger vehicles business unit, Tata Motors said.

Asked about the growth expected in the current financial year, Mr. Barman did not share any numbers, however, he said he was confident of achieving growth similar to last year.

“If you look at customer profile, it is changing very fast for Tata Motors. Today, 65% of our customers are less than 35 years old which means young people are liking our products. This gives us a lot of confidence…. This year too we will be way ahead of the industry,” he said.

Mr. Barman pointed out that during the last fiscal, the company has been able to up its market share in the passenger vehicle segment to 5.8% from 4.6%.

Dealership expansion

He added that the company will increase its dealership network by 100 this year to achieve good double digit growth. It currently has 746 dealarships. “We are constantly working on revamping and upgrading our products. This along with marketing… will help us achieve high double digit growth.”

The company, earlier this week, unveiled the AMT version of its compact SUV Nexon. It expects the new version to contribute about 30-35% to the model sales.

“We now have one product in all segment which is doing well. Tiago is now among the top 10 models in the hatchback segment and Tigor in Sedan segment. Nixon has done extremely well, and is number 2 in the SUV segment,” he said.