To regain its spot in SUV market, Tata Motors launches Nexon at price of Rs 5.85 lakh

In order to regain its lost ground, Mumbai-based Tata Motors on Thursday forayed into the growing compact SUV segment with the commercial launch of Nexon. This is its fourth launch in past 16 months.

Tata Motors, which covers 60% of the total segments in the automobile market, plans to increase its share to about 71% with the introduction of Nexon, and to 90% by the year 2019, the company officials said.

Mayank Pareek, president- passenger vehicle business unit, Tata Motors, said, "As part of the aggressive turnaround strategy, we have renewed focus on filling in product gaps and tapping the white spaces that will emerge."

The domestic market has been a major concern for Tata Motors in the past few years. The market share of commercial vehicle (CV) has fallen to 44.4% from a high of 59.4% in FY11-12, while for the passenger vehicle (PV), it has declined to 5.2% from 13.1% in the same period.

The company's top management during the review blamed this for overall delays in new product launches, in addition to the lack of adequate responsiveness to the competitive environment and an unsustainable cost structure.

The company wants to be amongst the top three automobile companies in the country by 2019. In its initiative, the company has restructured its managerial staff and launched a number of products in recent times and has plans to launch more. It has also upped its efforts in the exporting business, according to sources.