With CNG and EV markets anticipating strong growth this year, the company is also adding more to their line up in these segments
According to a top corporate executive, Tata Motors expects passenger car industry growth to slow to 5-7% in the current financial year, as opposed to 27% sales growth in the previous financial year, with a drop in pent-up demand. The auto giant is trying to launch new goods, such as CNG and electric vehicles, in order to maintain growth, while also expanding its current offering with fresh additions. With the exception of a few new releases in a few well-liked sports utility vehicle segments, Tata Motors Managing Director, Passenger Vehicle and Electric Vehicles, Shailesh Chandra, remarked that pent-up demand in the passenger vehicle market has now clearly gone down.
He pointed out that the industry had a sharp increase of 27% year over year as compared to FY22, which he attributed to pent-up demand and low inventory levels.
"This year (2023-24)...growth would be slightly moderate in the zone of 5 to 7%. But I'm sure that beyond this financial year, the growth will come back to a double-digit number," Chandra said.
According to him, the transition to RDE (real driving emissions) could result in a rise in car pricing, which could have an effect 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.
Chandra said the company is also growing its portfolio in terms of CNG and EV models, with both segments expected to see good growth this year.
"We should be the beneficiaries of that. And of course, we're driving margin improvement through an institutionalised cost-reduction initiative," he added.
In terms of dispatches to dealers, Tata Motors claimed its best-ever year in FY23 with 5.4 lakh units. The company's wholesale sales increased by almost 45% from FY22 to FY23. Chandra described the company's intentions for new product introductions and fresh interventions in existing brands in order to maintain excitement.
"We are going to bring a CNG variant (of Punch) with 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.
Chandra added that the business will also add new nameplates.
"We have showcased that in Auto Expo, Curvv, Sierra, these are new nameplates, that are going to get launched," he added.
Chandra further said, "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, that are going to increase our volumes, as well as market share."