The Italian Job

Italy, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, stylish, cars and one of the oldest in the field. These are the few words that flashes in your mind once you hear the word "Pininfarina". They are one of the oldest design studios which has given us some awesome cars in the Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Maseratti brands. It was 2008 when they came to an agreement with the banks to which they were indebted to. They were in a move to sell the their family owned major stake of 50.7% to a suitable buyer in 2009. So, guess what was the news going around the rumour mills, Tata Motors was one of the viable customers in line. What made this news to go around the media?

Pr1ma in the making

With already JLR in their pockets and Tata Nano already making the world automotive industry turn their attention towards Tata Motors, they wanted to go global in every aspect, this time being on the aesthetics part. So, where did they go? Pininfarina. They wanted to develop a saloon on the Indigo platform. The result was the launch of Tata Pr1ma(Italian for "First") in the 2009 Geneva Motor Show. The design was elegant and sleek. Both the interior and exterior dimensions were larger than the existing Indigo platform. It is expected to be launched by mid of 2012. The launch price would vary between 1200000 to 1500000 (approx $24000 to $30000). It would compete with market leader in the segment like Hyundai Verna Fluidics, Chevy Cruze and Honda Civic. With both Diesel and Petrol variants on the line and if Tata manages to give the fuel efficiency which they managed with their other models then it would definitely be a run for the money for both Honda and Hyundai fans.

As Pininfarina's collaboration with Tata Motors came into light with the launch of Pr1ma, the grapevine was buzzing in 2009 with the news that Tata Motors might be on a golden run in stepping into the Global market. It is already 2012 now but still nothing has happened regarding the deal. But if Tata really needs to breach that Global niche of clientele then it has to bring its A game, we can see glimpses of it with its Pr1ma.


Sources:
http://www.cartradeindia.com
http://www.insideline.com
http://www.worldcarfans.com

Pulse

It was a topsy-turvy few months for the Indian stocks. The stocks tumbled, Indian Rupee lost is value in the global market, India's economy grew 6.9% in the last quarter which was the least in the past two years and it was looking for revival in the past few days. What it is meant for the companies?

Tata Motors Ltd., the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, lost 3.1 percent to 177.35 rupees. With AutoExpo in January we could expect some revival in the automotive sector though rupee will take sometime to gain value again in the Global Market.

Speaking of AutoExpo 2012, Tata Motors is planning to unveil the diesel version of the Tata Nano. It is expected to give a fuel efficiency of around 30kmpl to 35kmpl and would cost 200000 to 300000(aprrox $6000). With most of the diesel cars starting in the 400000 range and with such a fuel efficiency, I think it would create the magic which the petrol nano missed. It has also given some face-lift for the interiors too. As I often say in my posts, with the rise in fuel costs if they promise to offer the same mileage as promised then it is a definite click in the Indian market.

Fortune 500

And this years "Fortune India 500" is out. The top spot is bagged by Indian Oil Corporation followed by Reliance Industries Ltd. Tata Motors occupy the 6th spot. Tata Motors has moved two spots up from 8th last year. This means that the company is on the right track towards sales and exports. With a slew products about to be launched and in the R&D and also with JLR in their belt its not a long for them to breach the top spot.

The New Breed

Similar to Maruthi Suzuki, Tata has also surprised me in recent times. This time I am going to speak about one such car which had impressed me from Tata Motors' stable.

Tata launched the Indigo sedan in 2002. It went to launch a few more variations of it in the upcoming years. It even had a station wagon called Indigo Marina but nothing was up to the par till 2009. It was the time when Ford Fiesta and Honda City were in the peak of its sales. Tata launched the Indigo Manza, in the third quarter of 2009. It had both 1.4litre petrol and 1.3litre diesel variants.

Indigo Manza

 So, what was the public and media reactions? It got rave reviews and the waiting list for the car started to increase. The design was pretty straight forward with the usual Tata front grill and a quite spacious boot. The interior was clean and neat with good quality plastics and leather, which came as a surprise for everyone from Tata. It was priced between 500000 to 800000 which was almost 200000(aprrox $4000) less than Ford Fiesta and Honda City. There are around four variants with the higher end variant having ABS and Airbags. 

With the increase of fuel prices in India, diesel was always quite cheaper than petrol. So, the first one to get hit was Honda. The sales of the Honda City dropped just within months. Almost ever customer started to get second thoughts. Higher fuel efficiency, cheaper fuel and spares and costs almost 20% cheaper with the same kind of comfort.

I myself have been in and driven one of my friend's car back in India. His was a diesel variant but the acceleration was very good for a diesel car. Very posh interiors, I would say at par with its competitors in the segment. With touches of chrome in both interior and exterior design, it makes a statement on the road. The ride control is pretty good even at higher speeds and the ABS does really work well. The engine though is a Fiat-Tata collaborated one, no complains about it.

Manza 2012

With the sales peaking for Manza, Tata is set to unveil a Hybrid version of Manza in the AutoExpo 2012 in January. It is going to be a tough competition for Toyota, which is still struggling to gain market share for its sedan Etios, Hyundai's new face-lifted version of Verna and also Ford's new Fiesta.

Chinese Footprint

When every other top tier automotive companies were wondering and not sure how Tata Motors is going to make a turn around in sales of its acquired JLR brand, Tata has made a statement in the past with some really good sales figures. With launch of Range Rover Evoque it has reassured that Land Rover is still in the game and a pretty good competitor in its segment.

JLR

 As everyone knows most of the big players in Europe are shifting their focus on the emerging markets like China and India, as still the economy in Europe is still trying to recover and automotive sales is still not so on a high. Land Rover's sales has been on a high especially in the Chinese market with already has around 100 dealerships across the country. Sales in the Chinese market has crossed 33600 units which is 60% more than last year. At this juncture JLR is planning for a joint venture with Chinese car maker Chery. According to Chinese media Jaguar Land Rover which is owned by Tata Motors, Chery is in all probability to be the chosen partner for JLR.

With Chery being one of the leading car manufacturers in China and with JLR entering into a JV with them will make the profit margin bigger while working on common platforms. Even though their sales slumped around the globe they recovered it from the emerging South East Asian market.

Seriously!!!!

I was taken aback and was quite surprised when I came to know about this piece of information from my friend. How does the name "Rover Indica" or "Tata CityRover" sound? But that is the reality.


In late 2003, UK based MG Rover group launched a hatchback "CityRover" which was nothing but the rebadged version of the Tata Indica. Though it was spacious for a hatchback, with just rebadging an Indian version of Tata Indica for an European clientele doesn't suit the bill. Its lack of quality in interiors and road handling which also added with expensive price tag led to the downfall of the product.

City Rover - Tata Indica

The price tag was in the range of the already established card like Skoda Fabia and Fiat Punto which was designed for the european market and had the niches for them while Indica was designed for the Indian market and designed for the Indian roads so by just rebadging it didn't work. 


In 2005, CityRover was given a face-lift and the price was slashed down to improve the sales. Then the production of the CityRover was stopped along with the rest of the model range when company went into receivership.

Moving Up the Ladder

With the launch of Nano Tata Motors proved that it has been pumping up and diverting lot of funds into R&D. We have also heard faint news of Tata Motors researching about a car running on Compressed Air but not sure how far that is true. European Commission has now made it clear that Tata Motors has made maximum investment into R&D topping the list in India pipping top players like Reliance Industries and Infosys.


In my post about Tata Nano, I mentioned about the face-lifted 2012 version and also the fact about how bad ad campaign was the cause for the low sales of Tata Nano. So, here is the ad for the Nano 2012. They send a strong message that Nano is still their signature model.

Tata Motors is on a roll now with sales still on a rise for the past few months. On this note, the November sales have risen by 47% when compared to the same month last year. Even though Jaguar's sales reduced by 5% to last month, Land Rover's sales were high by 38%. With China becoming a major player in JLR's Global sales, it is not a surprise to see these figures.