 "'Tiago will help us improve market share'")
Tata Motors launched the Tiago, its latest hatchback offering, on Wednesday. Guenter Butschek, CEO and managing director of Tata Motors, tells Swaraj Baggonkar that the new product will revive the firm’s fortunes in the passenger car segment. Edited excerpts:
The Zest and Bolt were not really successful. How important is launch of the Tiago in that sense?
We presented four completely new vehicles in the Auto Expo and they were all engineered and manufactured according to the highest quality standards. They shared the same design language. Tiago plays an important role because it is the first of the new products to be launched in the coming months and years to take our passenger car division to a different position in the market.
How crucial is the launch going to be for Tata Motors’ transformation?
Tiago plays a significant role as far as our transformation is concerned and even more so, towards the internal transformation process. We have opened a new chapter of Tata Motors with the launch of the Tiago.
Tata Motors’ ranking is No 5. When would you regain your earlier ranking of 3?
I cannot give a concrete time-frame for the simple reason that one product is not going to make the ultimate difference. It contributes to transformation and turnaround, but it won’t do the turnaround on its own. Therefore, I assume the Tiago is going to give us a good opportunity to gain market share.
If Tiago becomes a success, the other ones are going to be successful, too. If you ask me how long is it going to take to get back in the top three, I would say possibly in a year's time.
Is the contribution by new vehicles going to be significant in achieving that target?
Their contribution is important because with the new vehicles, we will target the private sector in the passenger vehicles business. This is one of the challenges that Tiago has to help us face.
