The company also witnessed strong sales performance in the 47 days long festive period this year with registrations of around 79,374 units, up 18 per cent over the same period of last year.
“We had a very strong festive season, which I would attribute mainly to the newly launched facelifted Nexon, Harrier, Safari and the iCNG range. And therefore, our VAHAN registrations, or real sale as we call it, was the highest ever in our history,” Chandra said.
He noted that the passenger vehicle segment is set to record its best ever performance in the current fiscal with the industry expected to cross the 40-lakh cumulative sales mark.
When asked if it could be a record year for Tata Motors as the company in terms of sales, he noted: “Yes, absolutely, for industry as well as for us.”
The company’s market share in terms of retail sales crossed the 15 per cent-mark last month, Chandra said. He noted that the company’s SUV portfolio led the retail sales growth in the last few months. Last month, Nexon and Punch were at the top two positions in the SUV segment, Chandra said.
“In terms of overall SUV numbers, we were at number two position last month,” he added.
Led by Tiago and Altroz, the company has also retained second spot in the hatchback segment, Chandra said.
He informed that the company has moved to VAHAN (vehicle registration data), from wholesale figures, as a measure of its sales and market share.
“It is helping us bring about a cultural change in the way people operate at the ground level from the dealer to the sales team. The focus is on demand generation, rather than managing off-take from OEM to dealers,” Chandra said.
On sales outlook post the festive season, he noted that there should be a dip in enquiries as compared with festive period. “But, I am sure that this level of demand should sustain… A strong demand should remain in the range of 3.3-3.5 lakh per month for the PV segment.”
Chandra said the automaker would continue to offer models with multiple engine options ranging from petrol, diesel, CNG and electric vehicles.
“Diesel has completely gone away in the lower segments in hatches and sedans and there it has been substituted with CNG vehicles. And therefore, in this segment CNG becomes an important and good alternative,” he said.
Similarly, compact SUV onwards there is a strong demand for diesel, Chandra said.
“So, we will go with the flow as per the demands in these segments,” he added.
