Tata Motors has 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.
At 522,539 units in the first 11 months of FY2024, Tata Motors is 21,852 units away from its record FY2023 sales of 544,391 units.
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.
In CY2023, Tata Motors sold 69,153 EVs, which was strong 59.15% YoY growth (CY2022: 43,451 EVs) and an increase in EV penetration level to 12.55% from 8.24% in CY2022. In February 2023, EV sales accounted for a 13.50% of total passenger wholesales.
TATA SET TO RECORD SALES OF 575,000 SALES INCLUDING 75,000 EVs IN FY2024
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 April 2023-February 2024, Tata Motors is 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.
Sustained demand for its EVs sees Tata record near-7,000 units in February, on the back of its best-ever monthly EV sales of 6,979 units in January 2024.
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 (see EV sales data table above). Given the monthly average of 6,100 units, March 2024 should help drive total sales beyond the 75,000-unit mark in FY2024.
Since the launch of the Tiago EV, Tata Motors says it has unlocked huge potential to increase its EV sales by adding 160 more cities in its EV sales network. Having inaugurated its two flagship EV-exclusive showrooms in Gurugram in December last year, it now plans to open 50-100 more such stores across the country in the next 12-18 months.
What’s more, with additional manufacturing capacity of 300,000 units per annum at the speedily refurbished former Ford India plant at Sanand in Gujarat, where Tata Passenger Electric Mobility began production in January, it could be surmised that the customer waiting period for new bookings won’t be a long-winded affair.
