Mahindra & Mahindra overtakes Tata Motors to become the third largest Indian carmaker

Though most yellow-registration-plate cars that you see in India today are made by Tata Motors, in reality the company is having a tough time holding onto its position in the race for being India’s largest carmaker. Tata Motors was until now the third the largest carmaker in India – behind Hyundai and the market leader, Maruti Suzuki. However, going by the sales of the third quarter of this financial year, Mahindra & Mahindra has overtaken Tata Motors to claim the third spot on the sales charts. While Tata sold a total of 60,405 cars between April – June 2012, Mahindra managed to sell a 1,099 more with a total sale of 61,504 cars.

While the sales figures of one quarter do not necessarily project the mid or long-term standing of either of the brands, it does raise a question on whether Tata cars are losing their mass appeal in the wake of newer products flooding the market. The current Tata line-up, which includes variations of the Indica and the Indigo and has utility vehicles like the Sumo, Xenon, Safari and the Aria, is ageing fast. The Nano, which was expected to be a game changer, hasn’t managed to be a fast mover either. Furthermore, products like the Safari Storme and the Nano diesel, which have been highly awaited in the market, have been delayed indefinitely. All these factors have not only managed to reduce the number of customers walking into the Tata showrooms, it has also given the competition the advantage of having fresher looking products and in a way, negating the price advantage that Tata products are known for.

Mahindra meanwhile, is on a roll with products like the Bolero, Xylo and the XUV500 managing to sell in big numbers. While the Verito has shown a steady a growth so far, it is also expected to get a visual upgrade soon and maybe even spawn a sub-four-meter version. The mini-Xylo too is expected to be a noteworthy value-for-money offering, which again has the potential to register good sales figures.

So what Tata needs then a slew of new products and models and a new design language. Though Tata have already shown their new design direction with concepts like the Pixel and the Megapixel, the only ‘new’ products that we see coming from the Tata stable in the recent future is the Safari Storme, the Indica XL and the Nano diesel – and apart from the latter, we don’t see the other two contributing significantly to Tata’s lost sales figures.