Tata Motors to develop new models on Ace platform

Tata Motors, the country's largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, is gearing up to launch new products and variants on its highly-successful Ace mini-truck platform, according to senior vice-president (commercial vehicles business unit) R Ramakrishnan.

"A lot of efforts are being made towards keeping our costs low by using lighter material, besides building technologies around fuel efficiency, engine and auto transmission. We are currently working on developing electric and hybrid technologies on the Ace platform to cater to certain niches in this segment," he said, while declining to draw any time line.

Speaking to mediapersons at a ceremony to celebrate the completion of 10 years of Tata Motors' small commercial vehicle (SCV) Ace series on Monday, Ramakrishnan said the company was currently leading the market with an 85 per cent share.

"In any developed country, the ratio between large and small trucks is 1:4, while it is 1:2.5 in India. SCV is an attractive segment which offers huge untapped potential. We are seeing a lot of competition in this segment at different tonnage points. However, we believe that we will hold our 85 per cent market share on the back of the reach that we have through our network," he said.

Tata Motors launched Ace in 2005 with a capacity of 30,000 units per year in Pune. The dedicated plant at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand today has a capacity of 500,000 units per year. To meet the growing demand, Tata Motors commenced production of Tata Ace Zip mini-truck at its new plant in Dharwad in 2012.

"Ace surpassed the 1.5 million sales mark in the last one decade. Currently,we are selling anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 units of Ace a month," Ramakrishnan said, adding that Ace was equipped to handle the Bharat Stage BS-IV emission standards.