Passenger vehicles: Tata Motors emerges as No. 3, helped by new products, campaigns

Tata Motors has emerged as a strong No. 3 passenger vehicle (PV) brand by sales after Maruti and Hyundai, gaining in sales and market share in the post-Covid period, helped by its new products and network and marketing expansion.

For two months in a row — July and August — Tata Motors has retained the No 3 position in the PV market. The company’s retail sales stood at 14,136 units last month, against 10,887 units in August 2019. In July 2020, its retail sales stood at 12,753 units (12,760 units). Mahindra & Mahindra has been pushed to 4th position now from the 3rd position it held earlier. Also, the sales gap between the two has widened in the past two months.

Tata Motors is hopeful of maintaining the sales momentum due to the strong response for its new range of cars — such as Altroz and Nexon — many of which carry high safety ratings.

“We are witnessing demand growth significantly higher than the industry for our ‘New Forever’ refreshed range of cars and SUVs, which are being appreciated for their best-in-class safety, stylish design and driving pleasure,” said Vivek Srivatsa, Head, Marketing, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors.

While the company secured an about 9.5 per cent market share in Q1 FY21 (4.8 per cent in Q1 FY20), the momentum has been sustained in this quarter as well.

Social distancing push

As social distancing norms are pushing customers towards personal transport, Tata Motors has introduced a host of features, services and offers to drive its sales further. Customer-centric tools, the launch of end-to-end online sales platform like ‘Click to Drive’, the introduction of health and hygiene accessories, finance offers like 100 per cent on-road funding and EMI holidays, are among its initiatives.

Being a well-known brand in rural and semi-urban areas, Tata Motors is also taking advantage of the strong rural economy to drive sales with specific campaigns. The company has been seeing more active buyers from smaller towns and rural markets.

Additionally, the share of the emerging market (rural) outlet penetration to overall sales for the company has marginally improved year-on-year in Q1 FY21.

“Considering this growth in demand, our network presence is being constantly ramped up to address the increasing customer requirement while building trust. Our marketing campaigns have also gone regional where we communicate in the local language, addressing regional requirements, thus getting closer to the customers. This helps us to communicate more effectively while also building trust in the brand,” said Srivatsa.