Tata Motors to continue investing ₹2,000 cr. per annum in CVs: Wagh
Tata Motors to continue investing ₹2,000 cr. per annum in CVs: Wagh
The commercial vehicles segment is on a double-digit volume growth course this fiscal in the country on the back of increasing consumption and government investment on infrastructure, Tata Motors Executive Director Girish Wagh said here on Monday.
“Growth depends on headwinds and tailwinds… while one of the headwinds fuel prices seem to have stabilised, we will keep a watch on [rising] interest rates,” Mr. Wagh said unveiling a new range of pickups here. “There are local tailwinds in terms of growth in consumption and infrastructure, booming e-commerce… as an average all these will lead to increase in industry volumes this year,” he said.
The increase will be on lower base of last fiscal, when volumes went downhill due to pandemic impact. While the FY21 volume of 5,50,000 units were the lowest, the peak for CV segment came in in FY19, when it touched about 1 million vehicles. “It appears we should be reaching at least 80-82% of that peak this year,” he said.
The company’s new pick-ups – Yodha 2.0, Intra V20 bi-fuel (petrol and CNG) and Intra V50 – were meant to cater to the requirements of a diverse range of sectors from agriculture, dairy, FMCG, e-commerce to logistics. The company had lined up 1,000 deliveries of the new range on the launch day and looked forward to healthy bookings, he said.
Without sharing specifics of investments on the new range, he said at the commercial vehicle business unit level, “we have been investing about ₹2,000 crore per annum, which includes the investment in IC engines, alternative fuel as well as electric vehicles… will continue to invest at the same rate.”
Ace EV deliveries
Stating that electrification was an irreversible trend and there were specific focus segments, he said with semiconductor availability, as also the supply chain issues behind it, Tata Motors was gearing up to meet demand for Tata Ace EV. It had unveiled the EV, which has a range of 150 km, in May and received 39,000 bookings on the first day itself. “We will start supplies from next month,” Mr. Wagh said.
To queries on prices, he said an unprecedented increase in commodity prices had resulted in vehicle prices being increased almost every quarter. “We may also look at some price increase in Q3 beginning,” he said.
