A senior official from Tata Motors revealed that the company is expecting slow growth till September end. According to R Ramakrishnan, Vice President (Commercial) Passenger Cars, Tata Motors, there were no new plans for increasing the sales of Nano as the current strategy was a huge success.
On the slow sales of the company, Ramakrishnan commented, "As we see it today, it is going to be subdued for some more months. It would start picking up in the second half. So (if) that will take us to the double-digit growth is anybody's guess." He further explained that the economic growth was moderate and not up to the projection, thus sales of automobiles did not rise up to the expectations.
In the current financial year the total sales including exports of Tata Motors was around 6,26,770 vehicles, whereas last year recorded around 5,67,004, leading to a rise of 11 per cent. As per the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), there was a slight growth of about 0.49 per cent in the passenger vehicle segment, during April-December 2011. In the same period, the passenger cars recorded a fall of 2.28 per cent, while a growth of 7.72 per cent and 12.67 per cent was recorded in vans and utility vehicles. Nonetheless, in December 2011, an increase of 8.85 per cent was recorded in the overall passenger vehicles.
The Vice-President said that the profit margin and growth in sales are dependent on the monetary policy review, which will be presented by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on January 24. Any changes related to the reduction on interest rate will directly affect the decision of people buying vehicles. Ramakrishnan further said, "If the rate goes down in stages, people will wait for three or four stages before they start purchase."
Speaking about the company’s strategy, he said that Tata Motors is looking forward to expand its Nano dealership network in both semi-urban as well rural areas. Furthermore, since the Tata Nano can be availed at the down payment of Rs 15,000 it will attract numerous buyers. Tata already has 250 dealers and 105 outlets for Nano along with 29 dealers for utility vehicles. The company has also made an announcement of four new outlets in Hyderabad that will be commissioned by Tejaswi Motors
