Passenger car maker Tata Motors on Monday said the company looks to strengthen its customer base in Gujarat with the launch of the hatchback Bolt. The company sells around 1,000 units (all passenger models) a month in the State currently.

Gujarat's overall passenger car sales is estimated at 14,000 units per month, of which Tata Motors has a market share of about 5.5 per cent.

According to Amit Sagar, National Sales Head-North and West Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, the hatchback segment has a 55 per cent share in the overall passenger car market in Gujarat. "The hatchback segment has had a muted growth of about 2 per cent last year, while the compact sedan segment saw over 25 per cent growth. But with the Bolt launch we expect our hatchback sales to pick up further," Sagar told mediapersons after the launch here.

The company also said the Bolt would not eat into the market share of the Tata Vista launched earlier.

"Bolt will not eat into Tata Vista's market because the two will have different customer segments. While Vista has been more successful in the commercial segment, we have positioned Bolt in the personal segment and are not taking taxi registrations for the same," said Sagar.

The company has priced the Bolt in the range of Rs 4.55 lakh to Rs 6.20 lakh for the petrol version and between Rs 5.62 lakh and Rs 7.16 lakh for the diesel model with four variants each at ex-showroom, Ahmedabad.

While the Bolt will be manufactured at the company's facility in Pune, its Sanand facility may manufacture new models other than the Tata Nano. According to company officials, the company has some new models in the pipeline and they would be distributed across plants, including Sanand.

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