Tata Motors, India's largest automobile company, is looking to become number one in the Northeast within the next five years.
"We aspire to be the leaders in the Northeast in the next five years," Madhur Sharma, product manager of Tata Motors' passenger car business unit told The Telegraph at the launch of the Tata Manza Club Class in Guwahati recently. "We want move beyond the number two position and are improving on various spheres."
At present, Maruti is the number one in the Northeast automobile sector, followed by Hyundai and Tata Motors. Sources said the latter two companies were going neck and neck in the region, each posing a tough challenge to the other.
Tata Motors, which generated consolidated revenues of Rs 1,65,654 crore ($32.5 billion) in 2011-12, has a 19 per cent market share in the region, where it has 13 full range dealerships, 21 sales outlets and 25 service networks.
Sharma said the good thing about the Northeast was that markets here were still healthy, unlike in most other places of the country. "There is growth and demand in the Northeast and our services are also being improved. New products will be coming in the next couple of years, which will improve our stand in the market."
Sharma said Tata Manza had been launched as a "club class sedan" and offers an intelligent combination of style and motoring pleasure along with the traditional needs for space and comfort. "The club class character of the car will be matched with club class consumer experiences. The owners of Tata Manza will have privileged access to services that go beyond the mere pleasures of motoring. The appeal of our offerings is enhanced with class-leading features that increase driving comfort. We remain firmly committed to developing new products across our entire range and we will continue to set new benchmarks designed to meet the needs of Indian car buyers."
On the features, he said Tata Manza Club Class comes with a first-in-class touch screen multimedia interface with in-built GPS and automatic climate control. The touch screen brings GPS navigation, multimedia DVD player, Blu5 and other such functionalities all through a multi-colour 6.2inch high-resolution display at the touch of a finger.
The Safire petrol range will start from Rs 5.74 lakh (ex-showroom, Guwahati) and the Q-Jet diesel range will start from Rs 6.52 lakh (ex-showroom, Guwahati).