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Dr V. Sumantran, Executive Director, Tata Motors, with the Tata Indigo Marina, at a press preview in Pune on Tuesday. The car will be launched on Wedneday in Mumbai. — Paul Noronha

Pune , Sept. 14

TATA Motors on Tuesday unveiled its much-awaited estate, the Indigo Marina, backing it with a promise to "mainstream the segment", which has not had a very sizzling track record in India and has in fact suffered from less-than-lukewarm sales.

Marina, the fifth model from the car manufacturer since the inception of its passenger car business, will attempt to repeat the success of its sedan sibling the Indigo, which has clocked 50,000 units sales in the last 20 months, with some aggressive pricing positioning and value-add for the consumer, Mr Rajiv Dube, Vice-President, Passenger Car Business Unit, Commercial, told reporters.

"Station wagons launched by other players have traditionally not succeeded mainly because of the premium pricing and also because the mother brand itself has not been successful to begin with," Mr Dube said, pointing out that most of these models have also been positioned as a weekend-use car and offered to the consumer in only one fuel option.

"With the marina, we are hoping to mainstream the segment by offering value-for-money pricing and various fuel options. The car will be positioned as an every day use vehicle.'

The exterior of the latest entrant to the company's passenger car portfolio is styled with roof rail, integrated glass house, and roof high sparkling tail-lights that gives it a sleek trendy appearance and will be available in three models of petrol and two models of diesel.

The car is powered by the 1.4 litre 85 PS petrol engine and the 62 PS turbo-charged diesel engine. "The estate is in response to the changing lifestyle and aspirations of the Indian consumer," Dr V. Sumantran, Executive Director, Passenger Car Business Unit, said.

The company is expecting to sell between 4,000-6,000 units of the estate every year, according to Mr Dube, who said the target is relatively modest given the fact that most of the competitors have either withdrawn their estate models or managed to sell only 250 units a month at peak sales.

"Estate models are in demand in the European markets and we plan to eventually tap these markets. The company is right now in the midst of a capacity expansion programme that will up production capacity by 50 per cent from the existing levels of 450-500 units a day by the end of the current fiscal," Dr Sumantran said.

"We are also committed to periodic power train upgrades and renewals in our business plan to make room for market demand," he added. Replying to a specific query about a drop in the production of cars for MG Rover UK, Dr Sumantran said a periodic review of the business plan and volume was part of the agreement with the latter. "Admittedly volumes of the car has not been as great as expected," he said, adding that 7,000 cars have been shipped to the UK since November 2003.

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