Tata Motors to launch new products in the passenger car segment

Tata Motors' Zest and Bolt play under the four metre space. The new launches will also be in this segment, but with different positioning

Tata Motors, India's fifth largest car maker, is ready to experiment with new products  in the passenger vehicle segment and reclaim lost market share. The company has lined up a series of vehicles in the hatchback, sedan and sport utility vehicle segments, in line with its promise of launching at least two cars every year.

Girish Wagh, senior vice-president for programme planning and management for passenger cars at Tata Motors, said, “Till a new product comes, we always think there are no white spaces. Till the time the (Renault) Duster was launched we always thought that the market was saturated, and the same goes for the (Maruti) Ertiga.”

Other recent successful examples of vehicles filling white spaces are Hyundai’s premium hatchback Elite i20, Ford’s compact SUV EcoSport, Toyota’s crossover Etios Cross and Mercedes Benz’s luxury hatchback A Class.

The company will launch a new hatchback and sedan in 2015-16. Though the Zest and Bolt play under the four metre space, the new launches will also be in this segment, with different positioning.

“The hatch market is almost 50 per cent and sedans are 20 per cent. So 70 per cent of the market is hatchback and sedans. You cannot have just one hatch and one sedan. In terms of pricing and customer groups and terms of product attributes, you can clearly have different positioning of the products by which you will be addressing the specific requirements of customers,” added Wagh.

Sources said the upcoming hatchback Kite, scheduled for launch in the festive season, would be positioned between the Nano and Bolt, close to the space in which Indica operates. The sedan will be positioned below the Zest. Wagh declined to provide any details about new launches.

“So we have Bolt and Zest at a particular level— sportier, aggressive, masculine, and with high-end features. But they do not cover the entire segment. There are clear positioning gaps which we will close. If you do not make a product with good attributes somebody else will, and finally a good product wins,” Wagh said.

The Kite's design will be a departure from Tata Motors' traditional themes such as the Indica and the Indigo. It will be devoid of Indica's 'Christmas tree-style' tail lamps and will instead have a 'diamond-style' wraparound tail lamp.

“We will continue to see very unique, differentiated design with those common DNA elements. What will also be seen is new cars having connectivity attributes depending on the segment”, he added.