Tata Motors aims to operationalise Ford's Sanand plant in 12-18 months

Tata Motors completed the acquisition of Ford India's manufacturing plant at Sanand in Gujarat earlier this month. Bought through the Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd (TPEML), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, at the cost of ₹726 crore, the plant is expected to be functional to produce Tata electric cars in the next 12-18 months, claims Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director - Passenger Vehicle and Electric Vehicles, Tata Motors. He also said that the automaker is aiming to increase its overall production capacity substantially through this plant, reports PTI.

The automaker previously said its manufacturing capacity is nearing saturation at the existing plants. Hence, the acquisition was timely and a win-win for all the stakeholders. The Sanand plant has a manufacturing capacity of three lakh units per annum, which can be scaled up to 4.2 lakh units per annum. Tata is aiming to scale up the production of its electric vehicles by leveraging this capacity at the Sanand facility. This would help the automaker substantially reduce the waiting period for the Tata EVs, eventually resulting in a higher market share.

Shailesh Chandra also said that the OEM could debottleneck capacities at its two existing facilities at Pune and Sanand by an additional 10-15 per cent. Besides that, the new Sanand plant is witnessing necessary investments to be reconfigured to adapt to the existing and future vehicle platforms. "We are targeting to operationalise the Ford plant in 12 to 18 months," Chandra said, noting that the auto company's production capacity currently stands at around 50,000 units a month.

Speaking about the car brand's profit margin expectations, Tata has said that it is taking structural material cost reduction actions and continues to drive other levers of margin improvement. Also, commenting on the sales outlook, Chandra said with a lean inventory and improved supplies, the fourth quarter should be strong in terms of wholesales when compared to the third quarter.