Tata Motors' bet on new models, safety pays off

MUMBAI: Tata Motors benefitted from updating its product portfolio early last year, just before the first lockdowns were announced, as it edged competition through the year to become the only established carmaker to register sales growth in calendar year 2020, the company’s vice president for global design said.Tata Motors sold more than 170,000 passenger vehicles in 2020, growing by 11% over the previous year when the wider market declined by 17% to 2.9 million units. The company gained 180 basis points market-share to corner 7% of the market by the end of the year - its highest since 2012. The other automakers to grow in 2020 were Kia and MG Motor, but it was the first full year of sales for them.Updating the portfolio design-wise along with updating it for BS-VI emission norms, as well as the launch of the Altroz hatchback at the beginning of 2020 had a big bearing on this, according to the company’s design head Pratap Bose.“The real impact of that refreshed portfolio is starting to be felt now,” Bose told ET. “If you look at our last two quarters, the numbers have been phenomenal. Many players have de-grown but Tata Motors has not only grown but outpaced anything we’ve ever seen. We are selling more Nexons now than we were ever selling in the past. Our December numbers are almost double of December last year.”The automotive designer feels that the company also reaped the benefits of going big on safety on its cars as the consumer gets more conscious of these factors. Nexon and Altroz have been rated at 5-star on a scale of 5 for crash safety by Global NCAP, an international charity that campaigns for vehicle safety. The Tiago and Tigor have scored 4 stars, giving Tata Motors one of the most highly-rated product line-up in India in terms of safety.The company expects to continue this momentum into 2021 with the launch of the Altroz Turbo, the new Safari sport utility vehicle (SUV) and a small SUV codenamed HBX. “And there'll be a whole set of interventions that we'll do through the year. We are doing some incredible interventions, small and large, through this year. There'll be no let-up in our action,” Bose said.The passenger vehicles business of Tata Motors is gaining ground on competition on the back of new vehicles after years of declining sales. Its market share eroded steadily from 11% in 2012 to 5.2% in 2019 before a sharp gain in 2020.The company invested heavily in developing two platforms, Alpha and Omega, to develop a new line of cars, starting with the launch of the Harrier SUV in 2019. The pandemic delayed the launches of the new Safari and the HBX micro-SUV.

from Economic Times https://bit.ly/38wv6tO
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