Tatas may take Ace, Magic to South Africa, West Asia soon

Tata Motors today said its popular mini commercial vehicle 'Ace' and passenger variant 'Magic', may soon be launched in South African, Asean and the West Asian markets.

Tata's mini truck Ace and passenger vehicle Magic, which together crossed the 1-million sales mark in August, are already present in 24 countries.

"We believe we have much more opportunities. We will be looking to expand more in South Asia, the West Asia and the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) markets," Tata Motors Executive Director (Commercial Vehicles Business) Ravi Pisharody said here.

"We had the capacity constraint till about March-April. But now we got the expansion going (which will cater to the increased exports)," he added.

The Ace was launched in 2005 with a capacity of 30,000 units annually at its Pune facility. In 2007, the company rolled out the Magic variant to cater to the passenger segment.

Since the success of the vehicles, the company set up a dedicated plant at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand, with a capacity of 5,00,000 units per year.

Total sales of the two vehicles in October stood at 10,59,135, of which domestic sales were at 9,97,133 units and exports at 62,002 units.

"Of the 1 million units, half have come in the last 26 months alone. We look forward for a rosy outlook for this platform and hope to achieve the next 1 million even in a shorter time," Pisharody said.

The two vehicles are currently sold through 1,346 showrooms with about 50% sales coming from semi-urban and rural markets.

The company enjoys about 80% share in this segment, Pisharody said, adding the vehicle comes in 10 variants.