As the existing Indica reached a matured stage in its lifecycle, Tata Motors Ltd (TML) hoped to pick up its ailing compact car sales through its new launch, the Indica Vista.
Indica reported a sale of 7525 vehicles last month in the domestic market, down 32 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
Total sales of passenger vehicles were 14,652 units in July.
The Indigo family did well to sell 4,487 units in the same period, up 73 per cent while Sumo and Safari sales were down 20.6 per cent at 2,640 units.
"While we are growing in the utility and sports utility vehicle(UV/SUV) segment as well as in the entry level sedan segement, the growth in the compact cars segment was impacted after the new model of the Indica was introduced in the Auto Expo in January as customers deferred buying the existing model. With the launch of the Indica Vista we expect the sales in the segment to move up once again", said Rajiv Dube, president, passenger car segment, TML.
The first four months of the fiscal had seen the Indigo sales shooting up 79 per cent on a year-on-year comparison, while the cumulative sales of the Sumo and Safari together were up 12 per cent. The Indica, however, saw a decline of 27 per cent in sales.
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TML had already phased out more than eight variants of the existing Indica to now have only seven variants remaining that were at different price points vis-a-vis the Indica Vista.
The new Vista was priced between Rs3.49 lakh ex-showroom for the 1.2L petrol Safire engine at the low end and upto Rs4.88 lakh ex-showroom for the top-end 1.3L Qudrajet diesel engine. The existing Indica will continue to exist with a rationalised portfolio, and between the Indica V2 and the new Indica Vista the customers would have a choice between the Rs2.6 lakh and Rs4.88 lakh range, Dube said.
It would start exporting the Vista afer six months of its launch after its initial producton could cater to the demand in the domestic market. The existing Indica, launched in 1998, sold an average of 12,000-13,000 vehicles per month at its peak during 2006-07.
"The Indica Vista should far exceed those numbers in its state of evolution", Dube said.
Commenting on whether TML mulled to raise prices in its passenger cars segment to accomodate for the steep rise in input costs, Dube said, "In difficult times what makes the real difference is the product portfolio, and with two launches since January and the third one now, we have an attractive portfolio compared to our competitors."
TML launched the compact sedan Indigo CS in January and followed it up with the Sumo Grande in March.