Tata Motors eyes top 3 slot by 2019

Chennai, April 5 : Tata Motors Ltd will focus on the domestic market, fill up the gaps in the product portfolio with new models, expand the distribution reach and improve service experience to become the third-largest car company in India by 2019, said a senior official here on Wednesday.

He said the constraint at the supplier end is one of the factors that is hindering ramping up the production of Tiago model to reduce the waiting time for car buyers.

"We want to be the number three car player in the country by 2019 climbing up from the current fifth spot," Mayank Pareek, President, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit of the Tata Motors, told reporters here.

He was here to launch the company's new sedan model Tigor.

While declining to share the number of units that the company would be selling to become number three by 2019, Pareek said the strategies that Tata Motors would adopt towards that goal are new product launches, expanding the distribution reach and also provide good service experience.

He said over the period new market segments would also emerge.

Pareek said the company would soon open digital showrooms in order to reach out to customers.

"A car buyer evaluates three models before purchasing one. We would like to have our models as one of the three that are evaluated by a car buyer," Pareek said.

Pareek said the production team is looking at increasing the number of Tiago being rolled out to cut down the waiting period.

He said Tata Motors rolls out around 6,000 Tiagos per month.

According to him, the company follows single vendor policy at its Sanand plant in Gujarat.

Pareek said the company has got around 83,000 bookings for Tiago and there are over 50,000 Tiagos on the road.

Queried about the impact that company suffered due to unsold inventory of BS III emission compliant models, Pareek said barring Indica and Indigo models all other models are BS IV emission compliant.

He said the unsold inventory of BS III cars was low for Tata Motors.

Speaking of new launches Pareek said during Diwali, Tata Motors would launch a compact sports utility vehicle.