Tata Motors bets big on new launches and festive season to boost domestic sales

Tata Motors is expecting the domestic car sales to gradually improve over the next few months. The homegrown auto giant is betting big on new product launches and the upcoming festive season for sales recovery in the Indian market. However, the OEM expects the demand to remain sluggish in the overseas markets in this financial year, reported PTI.

The report has quoted Tata Motors Global CFO PB Balaji saying that the overall demand in the global market in this fiscal is likely to remain muted. He further stated that the automaker doesn't project any immediate changes there. "Overall, from a demand perspective, we do anticipate that as far as the global demand is concerned, it is likely to remain muted. It has been that way. It's likely to remain muted. No immediate changes there," Tata Motors CFO reportedly said.

However, when it comes to domestic market situations, the company expects a gradual improvement in demand during the rest of the year. Multiple factors would aid the growth recovery in the Indian market, which include government plans to invest in infrastructure, healthy monsoons, favourable overall economic macros, new product launches and the upcoming festive period, Balaji noted. "So there is a need for absolute reason why there is an optimism as far as the domestic demand buildup is concerned, how gradual it's going to be, we will have to wait and see," he reportedly said.

PV sales in India witnessed a dip

India's passenger vehicle retail sales witnessed a decline for two consecutive months in this fiscal - May and June. Speaking about that, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles division's MD Shailesh Chandra cited high channel inventory as a notable challenge. He said that the company have an all-time high channel inventory with further buildup which happened in the first quarter. This added stress on the wholesales. He further stated that there has been moderation in the electric vehicle fleet segment demand due to the expiry of the FAME 2 scheme in March 2024.

In such a situation, outlining the auto company's strategy, Chandra said, “As far as we are concerned, in terms of actions, we focus on retail acceleration backed by effective marketing campaigns, micro market focus, targeted product interventions, which are going to come in the coming months."

Chandra further added that there are new upcoming vehicle launches primarily to drive customer excitement. He hopes that these new launches will improve customer footfall in the showroom. "There are new upcoming launches primarily to drive customer excitement and of course, it is also going to help the company improve footfalls in the showroom, " he reportedly said. Tata Motors launched the Curvv EV in India just a few days ago, which came as the country's first mass-market electric coupe SUV. Now, it is gearing up to introduce the ICE version of Tata Curvv, which is slated to launch on September 2.

Tata Motors targets to normalise dealership inventory

Tata Motors' current dealer inventory would be 35-40 days, stated Chandra, which the auto company aims to normalise by bringing it down. "In terms of normalised inventory, typically, we target about 30 days, so it is on the higher side," he added. The Tata Motors key official also said that inquiries remained firm in May and June despite the dip in retail sales. This pretty much indicates that in the coming months, the retail sales are going to make a comeback. "It was customers who are taking slightly more time in terms of converting to retail and we did see some level of bounce back in July. And we expect that in the upcoming festive season, the demand growth is going to come," Chandra reportedly added.

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