In a well calculated move to claw back both the wallet share as well as mindshare, homegrown auto major Tata Motors on Wednesday (March 29) launched its first compact sedan in a decade under the Tigor label with petrol and diesel options and with attractive pricing beginning at Rs 4.7 lakh.
“We found out that customer are not happy with the existing options. Tigor is not any other compact sedan filled with a boot in a hatchback. Tigor gives premium features and looks of a complete sedan," said Mayank Pareek, marketing and sales president.
He went on to add that Tigor fulfils the needs of the customers and the market.
“The market is very competitive and customers are very demanding. They want everything high, be it features, safety or looks but wants the price to be very aggressive,” Pareek said.
The latest offering from Tata Motors comes in just over two months of the launch of the Hexa SUV. Tata Motors said it had trained around 6,000 consultants for the sale of its new-generation products such as the Tiago, the Hexa and the Tigor across its 650 outlets and more than 500 service touch points. The company plans to add 200 sales touch points in the next fiscal.
The Tigor is as much as Rs 65,000 cheaper than segment leader Swift Dzire. Hyundai Xcent and Honda Amaze, other two famous compact sedans are priced Rs 5.44 lakh and Rs 5.52 lakh respectively. The compact sedan segment clocks an average of 30,000 units a month on which 17,500 units comes from the Dzire alone.
Though the company hasn’t commented on the sales volumes they are expecting in the initial months, Tata will be happy if Tigor manages to touch or breach Tiago sales.
Launched last year, Tiago was an instant success due to its design and aggressive price.
Till date the company has sold over 50,000 units, with over 83,000 bookings. Tigor is the third car coming from Tata’s impact design, joining Tiago and recently launched SUV Hexa.
On asking expectation from the upcoming fiscal, Pareek said that Tata Motor will continue the growth momentum. In FY16-17, PV industry grew at 9-10 per cent, while Tata Motors achieved a growth rate of 17 per cent.
The Tigor will be sold with the option of two engines – a 1.2 litre petrol engine and 1.05 litre diesel engine – which is also the smallest and least powerful in its class. The diesel Tiago achieves peak power of 70bhp significantly less than the most powerful Volkswagen Ameo at 110 bhp and slightly less than the Dzire at 75bhp.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld
