Despite very challenging times, Tata Motors has invested in expanding capacity for manufacturing buses. Tata Motors has three major bus manufacturing units now. At Lucknow is a Tata Marcopolo unit which builds ultra low-floor buses like the ones which have been supplied to DTC in Delhi. The Dharwad plant is again a Tata Marcopolo facility which is possibly Asia’s largest bus manufacturing unit and could potentially be the largest integrated bus manufacturing facility in the world when it gets into full steam. The Dharwad facility is built with a capacity to manufacture 15,000 buses per annum and has plans of expanding it to 30,000 units, based on market demand.
Production commenced at the Dharwad plant towards the end of 2008 and the unit is already churning out 500 to 600 small and medium range buses. From July the Dharwad plant will start building the low floor buses as well. This is a significant addition to Tata Motors’ bus manufacturing capacity. The third facility is the ACGL facility in which Tata Motors has a majority stake.
The capacity at ACGL has been doubled from 4,000 to 8,000 units and can be ramped up to 10,000 units in a short time. Currently ACGL is manufacturing the Tata Hispano inter-city bus, the semi low floor city buses with 900mm floor height and the buses for Tata Motors’ export requirement.
With all the capacity expansion in place, Tata Motors is well placed to take advantage of the opportunity in the bus business. Particularly the JNNURM order for 15,000 buses, orders for 8,000 buses have already been placed and the balance orders will be placed in the next couple of months. Tata Motors is targeting at least 50 per cent of the JNNURM order, for which it has enough capacity to execute the order between its three plants. “We feel in the next two-three years this will also take a major shift towards fully built solutions. We are making a conscious effort to shift the market towards ready to use applications”.
So far, out of the orders placed for 8,000 buses, Tata Motors has bagged close to 50 per cent of the order and a good percentage of this would be low floor and semi low floor buses. Some of the States which have order the Tata Marcopolo low floor buses are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Orders from many other States are expected soon. It may be recalled that Tata Motors recently bagged on order for 1,625 low floor buses from DTC, which is in addition to the 650 buses already supplied.
As already reported, Tata Motors is clearly moving towards providing fully built solutions in the bus segment across all its products segments, right from the LCV buses to the low floor city buses and the high-end Hispano inter-city buses. Currently 75 per cent of the buses sold are fully built units and going forward, with all the capacities in place, its bus business will move more towards offering fully built solutions. To help achieve this objective, the company has been conducting a series of road shows across India to showcase its product range in the fully built bus segment.
In the luxury segment, the Hispano high-end inter-city bus was launched in 2008 and the initial lot of 50 to 60 buses were seeded in the market. With the feedback from customers, the product has been perfected and it is now ready for commercial production. Hispano is averaging 15 to 20 buses a month, manufactured at the ACGL plant in Goa. The bus is pitted against the Volvo and Mercedes buses with comparable features, at 20 per cent lesser cost. A few buses have been supplied to tourism corporations in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.
Tata Motors has also launched CNG buses in its ICV range and more than 100 buses have been sold already. In the semi-luxury segment, which is sold as chassis and the body built by body builders, Tata Motors offers the 1616 and 1618 chassis. The company is working on a ready to use product in this segment.
Production commenced at the Dharwad plant towards the end of 2008 and the unit is already churning out 500 to 600 small and medium range buses. From July the Dharwad plant will start building the low floor buses as well. This is a significant addition to Tata Motors’ bus manufacturing capacity. The third facility is the ACGL facility in which Tata Motors has a majority stake.
The capacity at ACGL has been doubled from 4,000 to 8,000 units and can be ramped up to 10,000 units in a short time. Currently ACGL is manufacturing the Tata Hispano inter-city bus, the semi low floor city buses with 900mm floor height and the buses for Tata Motors’ export requirement.
With all the capacity expansion in place, Tata Motors is well placed to take advantage of the opportunity in the bus business. Particularly the JNNURM order for 15,000 buses, orders for 8,000 buses have already been placed and the balance orders will be placed in the next couple of months. Tata Motors is targeting at least 50 per cent of the JNNURM order, for which it has enough capacity to execute the order between its three plants. “We feel in the next two-three years this will also take a major shift towards fully built solutions. We are making a conscious effort to shift the market towards ready to use applications”.
So far, out of the orders placed for 8,000 buses, Tata Motors has bagged close to 50 per cent of the order and a good percentage of this would be low floor and semi low floor buses. Some of the States which have order the Tata Marcopolo low floor buses are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Orders from many other States are expected soon. It may be recalled that Tata Motors recently bagged on order for 1,625 low floor buses from DTC, which is in addition to the 650 buses already supplied.
As already reported, Tata Motors is clearly moving towards providing fully built solutions in the bus segment across all its products segments, right from the LCV buses to the low floor city buses and the high-end Hispano inter-city buses. Currently 75 per cent of the buses sold are fully built units and going forward, with all the capacities in place, its bus business will move more towards offering fully built solutions. To help achieve this objective, the company has been conducting a series of road shows across India to showcase its product range in the fully built bus segment.In the luxury segment, the Hispano high-end inter-city bus was launched in 2008 and the initial lot of 50 to 60 buses were seeded in the market. With the feedback from customers, the product has been perfected and it is now ready for commercial production. Hispano is averaging 15 to 20 buses a month, manufactured at the ACGL plant in Goa. The bus is pitted against the Volvo and Mercedes buses with comparable features, at 20 per cent lesser cost. A few buses have been supplied to tourism corporations in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.
Tata Motors has also launched CNG buses in its ICV range and more than 100 buses have been sold already. In the semi-luxury segment, which is sold as chassis and the body built by body builders, Tata Motors offers the 1616 and 1618 chassis. The company is working on a ready to use product in this segment.
Tata Motors has clearly identified passenger transportation as a significant growth opportunity for the future. The company is offering a range of products starting from the Magic, which is a passenger version of Tata Ace, to the high-end city and inter-city buses. The opportunity is much bigger than in the cargo segment, and Tata Motors is all geared up to garner a significant share of the passenger transportation segment.
