Tata Motors rolls out millionth car from Sanand plant

Tata Motors today rolled out the one-millionth car from its state-of-the-art facility in Sanand, Gujarat. The one-million production milestone comes 65 months and 30 days or a little less than five-and-a-half years after the company had produced its 500,000th made-in-Sanand car in October 2018. Tata Motors' growth in recent years is reflected in the fact that the first half-a-million cars from the Sanand plant had taken eight years. 

Set up in 2010, the Sanand plant is spread across 1,100 acres – 741 acres (Tata Motors) and 359 acres (Vendor Park) – with over 6,000 direct and indirect employees, and has been instrumental in Tata Motors’ growth and success in the passenger vehicle market. 

Being one of the company’s youngest plants, the Sanand facility benefits from up-to-the-minute technology across all its processes. The highly mechanised plant has incorporated a lean process management system. It houses a press line, the weld shop, paint shop, assembly line and powertrain shop. The facility also has a flexible assembly line and is produces passenger vehicles like the Tiago, Tiago AMT, Tiago.ev, Tiago iCNG, Tigor, Tigor AMT, Tigor EV, Tigor iCNG and XPRES-T EV. According to the company, a single model plant has been successfully converted into multi-model plant churning out three models with 100% assets management and utilisation.

Commenting on the one-million production milestone,  Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility said, “We are extremely proud to roll out the one-millionth car from our Sanand plant. This facility has been pivotal in bolstering our growth story in India by responding to market needs promptly. This achievement is a testament to the high standards we set for ourselves and the commitment we have to our customers."

Chandra added, "Our efforts have led to higher consideration for our products and this milestone certainly reiterates the popularity of our products among consumers. We are confident to carry forward our momentum in providing safer, smarter, and greener mobility solutions. We owe this milestone. We acknowledge and thank our employees, suppliers, channel partners, and most importantly the Government of Gujarat for their unwavering support, which has been integral to achieving this milestone.”

Over the past 13 years, Tata Motors’ CSR initiatives have touched over 300,000 lives in and around Sanand. The Sanand plant has adopted more than 68 villages in and around Sanand, Bavla and Viramgam. Setting up of toilets, skill development of women to increase their employability and health and education of girl child are the key initiatives with which the plant began its CSR activities in Sanand.

What's more, Tata Motors now has additional manufacturing capacity coming on stream at its second plant in Sanand, acquired from Ford India. January 10, 2024 saw the first car rollout from the speedily refurbished facility. This new facility will unlock an additional state-of-the-art manufacturing capacity of 300,000 units per annum, which is scalable to 420,000 units per annum.

Driving towards record sales in FY2024: 575,000 units including 75,000 EVs
With 11 months of FY2024 over and March 2024 to go, Tata Motors is also well on track to achieve record fiscal-year sales. FY2023 (544,391 PVs) was its best yet and with cumulative sales of 522,539 units in the April 2023-February 2024 period, Tata Motors is just 21,852 units shy of that figure. The fiscal-ending March 2024 should help it drive past that and could likely hit the 575,000-unit sales mark for FY2024.

At 522,539 units in the first 11 months of FY2024, Tata Motors is 21,852 units away from its record FY2023 passenger vehicle sales of 544,391 units. 

Sustained demand for its EVs saw Tata Motors record near-7,000 units in February, on the back of its best-ever monthly sales of 6,979 units in January.

In February 2024, the car and SUV manufacturer followed up its best-ever monthly sales performance in January 2024 (53,633 units) with wholesale dispatches of 51,267 units in February 2024, up 20% YoY (February 2023: 42,862 units). This marks the second month in a row that the carmaker has clocked sales of over 50,000 units and includes 6,923 EVs, up 30% (February 2023: 5,318 EVs).

The company, which retails seven PVs – Altroz, Tigor, Tiago, Nexon, Punch, Harrier and the Safari – in the domestic market, has capitalised on surging demand for its SUVs, particularly the Nexon and the Punch compact SUVs. What has benefited the company’s growth over the past couple of years is that Tata Motors' PV ‘New Forever’ portfolio covers petrol, diesel, CNG and electric powerplants, thereby considerably expanding its consumer reach compared to most of its rivals. 

Another factor that has acted as a catalyst to Tata Motors’ accelerated growth is its first-mover advantage in India’s fast-growing electric vehicle market, where it has an over 70% market share. The company currently retails the Nexon EV, Tigor EV and Xpres-T (for fleet buyers), the Tiago EV and the recently launched Punch EV at Rs 10.99 lakh.

Tata Motors had last year targeted EV sales of 100,000 units in FY2024. However, this big number may not be achievable albeit it is well set to clock cumulative sales of around 75,000 units. Cumulative 11-month sales are 67,095 units, up by a strong 54% YoY. Given the monthly average of 6,100 units, March 2024 should help drive total EV sales beyond the 75,000-unit mark in FY2024.

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