NEW DELHI: Home-grown auto major Tata Motors on Monday said that it is eyeing a very dominating position in the SUV segment with the launch of Company’s smallest SUV Punch (starting price Rs 5.49 lakh). “Hopefully a little better than that,” Vivek Srivatsa, Head of Marketing – Passenger Cars, Tata Motors told TNIE when asked if Tata aims to be India’s third largest SUV seller with the aggressively priced Punch. “This sub-compact SUV category should grow very well with Punch. We are confident of its success like our other products in the SUV segment, namely Nexon, Harrier and Safari.”
In recent months, utility vehicle sales in India has taken over passenger car sales by a fair margin. Hyundai Motor and Maruti are the top players in the segment but are closely followed by M&M, Kia and Tata Motors. Tata Motors, which sold 74,120 units between April-September 2021, has increased its UV market share to 11.34%. It was also the only major carmaker that registered an impressive growth of 21% in September when total passenger vehicle sales in India fell over 40% due to lower production.
Srivatsa said the festive season started pretty well for the company even though it is under production strain due to supply chain issues. “Last month our market share has gone in excess of 13% and demand continues to be very strong…Chip shortage is a global issue affecting every industry, including us. The issue is going to be there for some time and we will have to live with it. Our manufacturing efficiency has been far better than other manufacturers and we will try to keep optimizing it,” said Srivasta.
Tata, which is India’s largest EV seller with a market share of over 70%, also informed that they will come out with an electric variant of the Punch. “EV version of Punch is on the anvil...It will be there in the future,” said Srivatsa. Tata is also the only carmaker which offers 3 EV models to customers and recently announced plans to roll out 10 new battery electric vehicles (BEV) in its domestic product portfolio by 2025. On rising fuel prices, Srivatsa said this is increasing awareness for EVs but hasn’t impacted demand for 4-wheelers. He said there will be one more price hike in coming quarter due to rising commodity prices.