Tata Motors has been through many a trough in its 72-year history. The most recent dip in passenger cars is being reversed by, among other factors, adopting a leaner, more modern design ethic. But, what about commercial vehicles (CVs)? Pratap Bose, Tata Motors’ global head for design, speaks to Jonathan Ananda on the firm’s plans and new-age design trends. Excerpts:
Tata Motors seems to be doing well in designing cars. What about commercial vehicles?
CVs extend over a whole range. From the Magic Iris — with half-tonne capacity — to the Prima, a full-sized heavy CV. Then, you have buses and everything in between.
As designers, the obvious starting point is the use case. Then there are the functional aspects for the driver/operator. But, for us, CV design revolves trust. When someone sees it, they should trust it gets the job done. The engineering team takes care of reliability and functionality. We designers care about visually conveying that trust. When you see a school bus, you send your kid in, do you trust it?
But, has anything changed over the past decade? What are the factors that impact design philosophies?
There is a huge shortage in the trucking for drivers — India now has a 20 per cent shortfall. Earlier, drivers didn’t influence design directly. But now, they will.
The driver community is small, tight-knit and they share information. If a fleet owner invests in a safer, more comfortable cabins, word spreads and drivers gravitate towards these fleets. This pressure is now going to influence design.
Here, one of our strengths comes into play -- we have separate design teams for cars and CVs. But, they sit under the same roof and they share. The changes we have made to our car products over the past 24 months are coming to our trucks.
We need to convey certain values to the customer. Earlier, that used to be the fleet owner, but is rapidly becoming the driver. In Europe, this has caused the market to take the driver very seriously — ergonomics, safety, comfort, even finish and colour— anyone offering factoring this in will win the markets.
The Ace has done well in the LCV segment...I definitely see Ace as a landmark. When Ace was designed India was rapidly urbanising— we needed to get goods much deeper into cities. That need was spotted. If you read the context, what might happen in the future, you have every chance of success. Prima (HCV) was the same -- there was a huge interstate highway network in the works, and Prima was designed before those roads were being built. These are the actions of a leader.
What is TaMo looking to achieve going forward?
Essentially, we are looking at the entire logistics chain: from the factory to the door step, we want to be present at every link.
As a designer, what new technology excites you the most?
Battery-based electric. No two ways about it. Today, there are only so many places you can put the engine— the rest just has to fall around. In a full electric, you can have the driver in the centre, the left, the right... You can have a totally flat floor. It really frees up the architecture and this is exciting. We haven’t been able to do this for 80 years.