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Tata Motors launched its Hexa SUV here on Wednesday at a starting price of ₹12.9 lakh ex-showroom Maharashtra.
The vehicle will come in both manual and automatic versions.
Mayank Pareek, President, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, said nearly 60 per cent of the bookings have been for the automatic option which is keeping in line with the market trends.
The waiting period is expected to be eight weeks and customer response has been very positive.
According to him, the Hexa is an important part of the Tata Motors turnaround journey in cars which began with the Tiago hatchback nearly a year ago. The changing perception of the brand is also evident from the fact that it was ranked second in the JD Power Customer Service Index study of 2016.
From Pareek’s point of view, the sky is the limit for the company given that it covers only 59 per cent of the market in a country where car penetration is still less than 20 per thousand people.
Tata Motors has also climbed to the fourth spot in car sales which also augurs good growth prospects in the coming years.
The utility-vehicle segment has seen rapid growth in India over the last couple of years with a host of new models contributing to the story.
Even here, it is compact SUVs that have grown the fastest but Tata Motors decided to steer clear of this space, at least for now, which is dominated by vehicles ‘with bodies of tigers but hearts of squirrels’.
As Pareek said, the objective was to bring to the market a full-fledged SUV that would offer the best in power, styling, design, space and comfort at a competitive price. The Hexa, according to him, fulfilled each of these criteria with 150 engineers having worked on the project for two years. It also underwent exhaustive testing of 1.7 million kilometres.
Guenter Butschek, CEO & MD, said the Hexa was the flagship product for the company which would herald a new phase in innovative mobility solutions.
With a growing base of young buyers who are reasonably affluent, Tata Motors will hope that this SUV will strike a chord with some of them.
In the process, it should also do the trick in expanding market presence beyond the present level of 59 per cent as the brand gets more urban-centric. It will be a welcome change from the ‘cheap car’ association of the Nano days which seriously dented the brand.
The comeback started with the Tiago and the Hexa has been positioned to take the script to the next level.
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