Tata Motors lines up new vehicles;to phase out legacy products

New Delhi: Tata Motors is lining up new offerings across segments and is looking at phasing out "legacy products" as well as some suppliers as it aims to be amongst the country's top three passenger vehicle makers in three years.

The auto major is also working on a study on phasing out some of its models both in the passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle verticals.

"What we are going to do in the future requires a different approach from what we had in the past. If you see today's product portfolio there is lot of different platforms each car sits on individual platform, this is not a good starting point to create economy of scale in a highly competitive environment," Tata Motors Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director Guenter Butschek told reporters here.

Therefore, the theme is the company needs to do more on the basis of less, he added.

"I need to focus on less platforms and leverage these platforms with more in order to spread my wings in many segments as possible and at the same time creating a higher degree of leverage and commonality and economies of scale," Butschek said.

When asked if the company would look at phasing out some of its models which are not selling well, he added: "A study has been initiated (on review of phasing out of some models) ...Holistic view of Tata Motor's state... We are also preparing same kind of review for the CV side for the very simple reason that I want get my agenda right".

On future strategy for the passenger vehicle vertical, he said that the company is going to initiate a plan which "is going to be very focused".

While accepting the fact that the company currently is not on the preferred list of customers, he reiterated it is in a transformational phase and has set a target of being amongst the top three Indian passenger vehicle makers by the end of 2018-19 fiscal.

He added that the company would launch new products like Kite 5, Hexa and compact SUV Nexon which will get it entry into the fastest growing segment.

When asked by when the company could make a turnaround in passenger vehicle segment, Butschek said: "It will take us a while".

He said the company is also working to make itself better internally too.

"I do belong to school of thought where instead of cleaning doorstep of others I will actually sweep the floor in the front of my own house," Butschek said.

Admitting legacy issues, he said the company is focusing on improving supply chain in in both passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle verticals.

"The biggest challenge is to change supplier base for legacy products...Some of the suppliers will be phased out with the products and probably won't show up in the new supplier base," he said.

He added that the company is going to have significantly less suppliers in the future. The Mumbai-based firm currently has around 1,300 tier one suppliers.

On export markets, he said the company has potential to do well in South America, North Africa, Middle East.