Re: The Story of Tata's Epic Journey from Trucks to Aria
Nano to share facility with other Tata cars | Business Standard
Tata Motors, India's largest car maker by revenue, is exploring the possibility of adding more models to the production line at the Gujarat plant which makes only the Nano presently.
The Mumbai-based company, which is the country's fourth biggest car maker, is aiming to upgrade its asset utilisation which will allow it to rationalise its future investment on expansion.
The relocated Sanand facility in Gujarat makes the budget car Nano but remains largely under utilised. Present production at the Rs 2,000 crore plant is much lower than the capacity the company has built it for.
Karl Slym, managing director, Tata Motors, said, "Obviously to be economically viable one has to make sure to use your assets and therefore for us it is important that we end up using our assets suitably so in the future there is no reason why we should not have other vehicles there to be able to make sure we can use it".
Just under a fourth of the initial installed capacity at the plant of 250,000 units per annum is presently under utilisation. Despite several key retail and marketing initiatives demand for the small car remains subdued.
For instance Tata Motors sold 1,504 units of the Nano to its dealers in January, which was a 16 month low and a fall of 81% compared to the same month last year when it sold 7,723 units to its dealers.
The company could thus look at making its other car models at the Nano plant to improve utilisation levels. In the car space the company makes the Indica, Vista, Indigo and Manza models and Sumo, Safari Storme and Venture in the other categories.
Owing to lower than anticipated demand for the Nano the company was forced to cut back on production and modify working hours at the plant recently. The spillover effect of this was seen on component suppliers which also had to lay off workers and shut units to align production with demand.
"The company can look at making its future generation models at the Sanand plant which is comparatively newer than the Ranjangaon and Pune plants. This will also allow the company to operate more efficiently and improve operations", said a Mumbai-based analyst.
Tata Motors has taken a note of the gaps in its passenger vehicle product line-up and is preparing to address the same through new launches. This will include the much-awaited launch of the Nano diesel, which is slated to hit showrooms by the end of this year.
"We have obvious gaps in the portfolio, we are a volume player. It is important for us to have good offerings in the segment which are volume segments. For example our SUV range is a very off-road SUV range. The piece of SUV segment which is growing very strongly in India is the soft-road or look-alike SUV and we don't have one there so I think that is a mistake for us a mistake in our ability to look forward", added Slym.
Nano to share facility with other Tata cars | Business Standard
Tata Motors, India's largest car maker by revenue, is exploring the possibility of adding more models to the production line at the Gujarat plant which makes only the Nano presently.
The Mumbai-based company, which is the country's fourth biggest car maker, is aiming to upgrade its asset utilisation which will allow it to rationalise its future investment on expansion.
The relocated Sanand facility in Gujarat makes the budget car Nano but remains largely under utilised. Present production at the Rs 2,000 crore plant is much lower than the capacity the company has built it for.
Karl Slym, managing director, Tata Motors, said, "Obviously to be economically viable one has to make sure to use your assets and therefore for us it is important that we end up using our assets suitably so in the future there is no reason why we should not have other vehicles there to be able to make sure we can use it".
Just under a fourth of the initial installed capacity at the plant of 250,000 units per annum is presently under utilisation. Despite several key retail and marketing initiatives demand for the small car remains subdued.
For instance Tata Motors sold 1,504 units of the Nano to its dealers in January, which was a 16 month low and a fall of 81% compared to the same month last year when it sold 7,723 units to its dealers.
The company could thus look at making its other car models at the Nano plant to improve utilisation levels. In the car space the company makes the Indica, Vista, Indigo and Manza models and Sumo, Safari Storme and Venture in the other categories.
Owing to lower than anticipated demand for the Nano the company was forced to cut back on production and modify working hours at the plant recently. The spillover effect of this was seen on component suppliers which also had to lay off workers and shut units to align production with demand.
"The company can look at making its future generation models at the Sanand plant which is comparatively newer than the Ranjangaon and Pune plants. This will also allow the company to operate more efficiently and improve operations", said a Mumbai-based analyst.
Tata Motors has taken a note of the gaps in its passenger vehicle product line-up and is preparing to address the same through new launches. This will include the much-awaited launch of the Nano diesel, which is slated to hit showrooms by the end of this year.
"We have obvious gaps in the portfolio, we are a volume player. It is important for us to have good offerings in the segment which are volume segments. For example our SUV range is a very off-road SUV range. The piece of SUV segment which is growing very strongly in India is the soft-road or look-alike SUV and we don't have one there so I think that is a mistake for us a mistake in our ability to look forward", added Slym.
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