Tata Motors, the country’s largest auto maker by revenues, has reduced the prices of its all passenger cars, excluding Nano, by Rs. 29,000 to Rs. 50,000, in order to lure the price sensitive Indian buyers. Besides this price cut, the auto maker has been already offering other discounts worth Rs. 25,000-30,000 on its few models like Indica, Indigo, Vista and Manza. Expressing his views on this move, a person close to the development was quoted as saying, “Due to the sluggish market condition, Tata Motors wanted to offer attractive prices to our customers to induce buying.”
An official dealer of the auto maker, without revealing his identity, said, “The company has slashed prices by 50,000 straight from maximum retail price of Indica and Manza. This improves the value proposition further for these models and we hope we are able to liquidate the inventory with the revised prices.” According to him, the auto maker presently has an inventory of Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 30,000 units and is looking ahead to roll it in the market before the arrival of next financial year.
It must be noted that for the month of February 2013, Tata Motors had recorded a fall of around 62 per cent, amounting to 10,613 units, in its domestic sales of Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and passenger cars. The official further said, “The company has been taking all the possible measures to keep inventory under check and has been producing as per the demand.”
On the other hand, the auto company has increased the prices of its SUVs by Rs. 20,000-35,000, owing to the increase in the excise duty revealed by the Finance Minister in Union Budget. Industry experts believe that this hike will further hit the sentiments of Indian buyers towards buying the new Tata SUV whose sales has been already affected in February 2013.
