Sources have stated that Tata Motors will phase out at least four cars in its existing portfolio over the next three-four years to pare the current number of platforms from six to two by 2020-21. The models that are likely to be at the end of their life cycle are Nano, Indica, Indigo, CS and Sumo and the production of Sumo Grande, a derivative of the Sumo one of the earliest passenger vehicles from Tata Motors that was introduced more than 25 years ago has already ceased.
The Tata Motors marketing head (passenger vehicle business) Vivek Srivastava had confirmed that the company aimed to retain just two platforms and developed various models on them. Nano has been in the news in recent times with ousted Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry unambiguously stating that its production needed to be stopped to stem the company’s loss.
The ‘world’s cheapest car’ was a brainchild of Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata and is believed to be one of the several irreconcilable differences that led to Mistry’s acrimonious departure from the Tata group. He said "Before the launch of Tiago, well over 50% of our sales came from commercial fleet owners. Now, it has gone down to 30%. We hope to further reduce it to 20% as we reposition ourselves as a maker of primarily personal cars".
Phasing out the older vehicles and unveiling new ones is crucial to Tata Motors’ overtaking Mahindra and grabbing the third spot among Indian automakers. Two of the new introductions are lined up in 2017-18 compact SUV Nexon that was showcased at the Indian Auto Expo, and sports car TaMo Racemo that was unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show.
