Tata Motors plans to rationalise its portfolio of models over a period of time even as the passenger carmaker accelerates the roll out of next-gen vehicles.

“One cannot carry on making the same kind of cars. We will eventually rationalise our portfolio,” the company’s President and Head of Advanced & Product Engineering, Tim Leverton told BusinessLine .

Tata Motors launched its first car, the Indica, way back in 1988 and has launched several models since then. But, with the launch of its latest models, the compact sedan, Zest and its hatchback version Bolt, it plans to launch two models every fiscal. In another significant move, the company has decided not to allow registration of Zest and Bolt for the taxi segment.

Leverton said a lot of work has gone into the manufacture of Bolt, which is fitted with a new gasoline engine, Revotron, and comes with multi-drive features. He said customer-expectations have changed over the years as they want cars which match world-class standards and at the same time are competitively priced.

“Some of the things we did was to draw on JLR, re-engineered the processes, redesigned the models adding many segment defining features,” he said. In some ways, JLR has contributed to product and design qualities of the company’s new models.

Tata Motors’ European Tech Centre based out of London is fully involved with the design of new cars drawing on capabilities and skills from around the world. “We are learning fast and have put together cross-functional teams which we didn’t have earlier,” he said. Bolt’s design is a culmination of inputs from Tata Motors’ three design studios: Pune, Coventry (UK) and Turin (Italy).

Leverton, who earlier worked with Rolls Royce, pointed out that engines are becoming more complex as they have to be more efficient as well as adhere to strict emission standards.

Ashesh Dhar, the national sales head for south and east of Tata Motors said Zest has made it to the top three brands in the compact sedan segment since its launch in August last year. It has so far sold about 18,000 units with both the gasoline as well as diesel models selling equally well.

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