Tata Motors has already put in place a turnaround plan to gain market share in the passenger vehicle (PV) segment.

The company, buoyed by the turnaround of its commercial vehicles (CV) division in the last financial year, has now initiated a similar programme – called ‘Turnaround 2.0’ – for its PV segment.

According to Guenter Butschek, MD and CEO, parts of the turnaround plan (for the PV segment) were put in place last fiscal onwards.

Under Turnaround 2.0, the company’s efforts will be to enable its PV business to be “self-funding and profitable”, build confidence and acceptability for its portfolio from old and new buyers, which in-turn will lead to a gain in market share.

“With Turnaround 2.0, we focussed on the domestic commercial vehicle segment and regained market share. We demonstrated that we could de-bottleneck the supply chain. Now, we are looking to implement the turnaround plan for passenger vehicle business,” he said on the sidelines of the inauguration of a new PV showroom here.

Tata Motors is the Number Four passenger vehicle-maker in the country with Maruti, Hyundai and Mahindra being the top three.

Rising input costs

Tata Motors has adopted a wait-and-watch policy on the movement of aluminium prices.

A report by ICRA says that post the US imposing sanctions on Rusal, one of the leading aluminium manufacturers globally, prices of the metal have sky-rocketed by 30 per cent over the last few weeks. The automobile industry, one of the key users of aluminium, is likely to be impacted by the sudden spurt in prices. (Aluminium along with its alloy accounts for about 10 per cent of the weight of a hatchback.)

“Let’s wait and see how it develops,” Butschek said.

He, in fact, pointed out that the company has already initiated a price rise of ₹60,000 (across its portfolio) from April. This was done to offset rising input costs such as copper, steel and rubber.

Focus on EVs

Butschek also did not rule out the company’s focus on electric vehicles (EVs). Tata Motors has so far delivered some 200-odd fully electric Tigors, its compact sedan.

First-time buyers continue to be a huge opportunity that can be tapped in the EV segment.

Pointing out that EVs were the need of the hour, the MD and CEO said Tata Motors was open to experimenting with electrification of fleet of different commercial operators. Commercial fleet sales, at present, account for 10-12 per cent of the total vehicle sales of the company.

“We have a plan and are in active discussion with such fleet operators,” he said.

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