After posting the highest annual sales in the company’s history in the calendar year 2021, the maker of the Nexon and Harrier SUVs is eyeing a record January-March period, the fiscal fourth quarter, with sales of 125,000 vehicles, people in the know said. An improvement in semiconductor supplies, which rose about 10% from the past quarter, is aiding the bullish outlook, they said.
The projected production in the fourth quarter, if achieved, will take sales for the fiscal year ending March 31 to 370,000 units, a 65% increase from fiscal 2021, and help record a profit before interest and depreciation.
For the next fiscal year, Tata Motors is targeting half a million units, encouraged by strong bookings. In fact, the company has asked component suppliers to be ready for a volume of up to 600,000 units, or production of 50,000 units a month, industry insiders said. This plan is a year ahead of Street expectations.
An email sent to Tata Motors seeking comment did not elicit a response till press time on Wednesday.
An output of 125,000 vehicles in January-March will fetch the company a turnover of ₹10,000 crore for the quarter. At 500,000-600,000 units in FY23, the turnover may swell to ₹40,000-50,000 crore for the year. It had posted revenue of ₹22,000 crore for the first nine months of FY22.
It had revenue of ₹8,600 crore in the third quarter of FY22 and its performance before interest and depreciation was just a shade below the positive mark if a 2-percentage-point impact from the formation of a PV subsidiary was excluded.
According to the people in the know, the company has added a second production line at its Pune plant and entered into an agreement with partner Fiat India to secure higher output of cars from its Ranjangaon plant.
At the Sanand, Gujarat factory, Tata Motors is expecting output to increase 30-40% to 18,000 units a month by the end of 2022, with petrol-diesel, CNG and electric vehicles accounting for an equal, or one-third, share in production.
Tata Motors had overtaken Hyundai Motor India in the sales of SUVs in the December quarter, due to a shortage of parts at the South Korean rival’s Indian operations. Now, Tata Motors may overtake Hyundai for the entire financial year, if it can meet its production and sales targets.
The company will be banking on mid-cycle facelifts of the Tiago, Tigor, Nexon, Harrier and Safari to sustain the momentum in the coming 12-24 months. Already, the CNG versions of the new Tiago and Tigor have boosted their sales.
The facelifted version of the Nexon, Harrier and Safari, planned for mid-2023, will meet the upcoming real driving emission standards. There will be new offerings in electric vehicles as well.
The output next month is likely to reach about 50,000, compared with an average monthly production of 32,962 units in the October-December quarter.
In the October-December quarter, Tata Motors was the second-largest player in utility vehicles with a market share of 18%. Its total market share was 13%, making it the third-largest in the market.
The company’s production target for FY23 is baked by analysts who are tracking it for FY24.
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