Tata Motors to start rolling out BSVI-compliant passenger vehicles from this month

Tata Motors said on Thursday that it will start rolling out BSVI-compliant passenger vehicles from this month.

The auto major also plans to have four global unveils and display 14 commercial and 12 passenger vehicle at the upcoming Auto Expo, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Guenter Butschek said. 

Tata Motors has invested Rs 1,200 crore in transition to the new engine technology, which include investment in end-to-end focus for sales, after-sales and spare parts inventory management, in the last fiscal, he added.

Tata Motors is all set to roll out a product offensive in 2020. It will commence the introduction of its all-new BSVI range of products with passenger vehicles, starting from January 2020, the company announced.

"From January 2020 onwards we will be introducing over 100 lead models with over 1,000 variants," Tata Motors President and CTO, Rajendra Petkar said. 

These will cover options of powertrain combinations, body styles, chassis configurations and technologies imbibing CESS (connected, electric, shared and safety), he stated.

Significant front loading of activities, the use of digital product development tools and early involvement of globally reputed technology and supplier partners have helped us accelerate the portfolio migration, he added.

The company also said the BSVI transition has been the single-largest focus area for it, adding that it established a state-of-the-art 'Advance Power Systems Engineering Tech Center' at its Engineering Research Center (ERC) Pune, which has played a key role in the roll-out.

Butschek said that with this new range of products, the company is confident that January marks a turning point in transition to BSVI.

"It is going to give us a much more powerful play for 2020-21, and if this is going to be supported by a bit of a tail wind, as far as the market is concerned, I am confident that we are going to get back to the previous growth path."

He said the recovery in the passenger vehicle segment is expected in the second half of the next financial year.

We are cautiously optimistic. The second half of the next fiscal year should be a realistic horizon for the recovery," he said.

He said that the Union Budget 2020-21 needs to have the stimulus element where the industry sees the continuation of what was announced earlier by the government to boost demand.

"I do hope that the scrappage policy is formalised and finally approved soon. This would also help as far as transition from BSIV to BSVI is concerned," he said.

India is a widely diversified market and the last year has shown the industry that in order to play in such highly diversified market, with many differentiated dynamics, one needs to apply a micro market strategy, Butschek said.

He said the company had not yet taken a call on the pricing of BSVI vehicles.

(Image Credits: Tata Motors)