Kolkata: Tata Motors, the auto arm of India’s salt to aviation conglomerate, on Monday said it is difficult to carry on with the introductory price of its newly launched hatchback Tiago.
While Tiago’s range of the petrol version is bet-ween Rs 3.37 lakh to Rs 4.97 lakh, its diesel version starts from Rs 4.14 lakh to Rs 5.7 lakh ex-Kolkata.
“Holding to this price is difficult,” Tata Motors Ltd (TML) vice-president, sales and network (passenger vehicles), S.N. Barman said here on Monday at the launch of Tiago in the city.
He, however, declined to speak further on how long the introductory price could continue. The extreme competitive pricing in the A2 segment to push sales was expected to help garner higher market share of Tata Motors from the current 3.6 per cent in the hatchback segment.
“The current market share in hatchback is 3.5 per cent. The total A2 segment sales was 13.6 lakh last fiscal. Overall car market share of Tata Motors is around 5.6 per cent,” Tata officials said.
The company had a 10 per cent market share more than a decade ago, when its Indica hatchback was a favourite for personal use and as a taxi. However, it declined gradually to the single digit.
According to analysts, Tata’s popular old models like Indigo, Indica and Indigo Manza may not work anymore. Mr Barman said the company will launch three car models in the next 12-18 months.
Tiago comes with fuel efficiency of 23.84 km per litre on Revotron 1.2 litre petrol and 27.28 km per litre on Revotorq 1.05 litre diesel engines as per Automotive Research Association of India certification under test conditions.
Tata Motors, Mr Barman said, was also expanding its dealership footprint and propose to double the dealership and outlets from 596 in the next three years.
