Tata Motors sees subdued growth till mid FY13

Tata Motors, the country’s largest automobile company, is expecting a subdued growth till the middle of the next financial year, according to R Ramakrishnan, vice-president (commercial, passenger cars).

Announcing the launch of four new outlets commissioned by Tejaswi Motors (three ) and Detroit Motors (one) here on Friday, he said the company’s existing campaign was a success and hence had no revision of strategy for pushing up Nano sales.

On whether the company expects a double-digit growth during the next financial year, Ramakrishnan said, “The growth will be subdued for some more months and it will start picking up in the second half of the next financial year, which will take us to the double-digit growth.”

According to him, cumulative sales of Tata Motors, including exports, in the current year stand at 626,770 units, representing a growth of 11 per cent, as compared with 567,004 units last year.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the passenger vehicles segment grew marginally at 0.49 per cent during April-December 2011. Passenger cars recorded negative growth of 2.28 per cent, while utility vehicles grew 12.67 per cent and vans 7.72 per cent during that period. The overall passenger vehicles growth, however, was 8.85 per cent in December 2011.

Stating that a lot depended on the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy review on January 24, Ramakrishnan said if there was an interest rate cut then people would wait for some more cuts to happen before deciding to buy a vehicle.