By 2020 Tata Motors plans to almost double its dealer network in the country as they are targeting rural areas and cities alike. The company looks to claw back to a dominant position in the Indian passenger car market. The company, which currently has around 500 touch points across the country, aims to add equal number of dealerships to expand its presence.
Tata Motor’s President for passenger vehicle business Mayank Pareek said that India is a hugely diverse country. There are around 6.5 villages, 3,000 towns with a population of more than 50,000 people and over 3,800 tehsils. They are trying to go as much near to the customers.
He added further that the company is embarking on expansion of the network across the length and width of the country. "By 2020 the passenger car market will touch 5 million units per annum mark. It will double from the current 2.5 million market. So, looking at that we also need to at least double our network by then," Pareek said.
When Pareek was asked about expansion in rural areas, he said that in rural areas they need to expand more as there is upsurge in the market. Aspirations of people are growing as roads are getting connected.
For Tata Motors, rural sales currently account for around 15 per cent of total sales while some other players are getting as much as 30 per cent of their sales from rural areas, he added.
Pareek said,"Also there is a huge affinity towards Tata Motors brand in the smaller towns. We could leverage on that." Commenting on the new launches, he said that Indian car market is growing. Earlier there used to be just A and B segments, but look now we have so many segments. So there will be demand and we would need to bolster the existing portfolio as well as enter new segments.
He said soon-to-be-launched compact car ‘Bolt’ would ensure the company’s "re-entry into the hatchback segment". After getting a good response to its compact sedan Zest, the company is all set to launch Bolt in the near future. With government all set to bring in mandatory crash testing norms for passenger cars, Pareek said Tata Motors is ready to comply with the new norms.
