Tata Motors rolls out its 500,000th passenger vehicle
February 18, 2005

Tata Motors, India’s largest automaker, today rolled out its 500,000th vehicle from its car plant facility in Pune. This facility, which commenced production in December 1998 with the Tata Indica, achieved the 100,000-production mark in March 2001. In addition to the Indica, this facility also produces the best selling sedan-the Indigo and the new Station Wagon-Indigo Marina. It has achieved the 500,000th vehicle production within nine months of rolling out the 400,000th vehicle in June 2004. The 500,000th vehicle from the car plant – the Tata Indica – was driven out by Ratan N Tata, chairman, Tata Motors.

States Dr V Sumantran, executive director – passenger car business unit and ERC, “The entire company takes pride in crossing this milestone. More importantly, we cherish the trust of our customers who have made the Indica, the Indigo and most recently the Indigo Marina all very successful products in their respective segments. The car plant was launched with modern systems and processes and has seen its capacity further increase as we look to the future.”

Tata Motors is the second largest passenger vehicle player in the domestic market with a market share of 16.6 per cent. Including the Sumo and Safari, over 765,000 passenger vehicles ply on Indian roads. The company also exports its passenger vehicles to markets in Europe, South Africa and the SAARC region. Tata Motors passenger vehicle sales at 143050 numbers in the first ten months of this fiscal have been growing at 28 per cent.

Tata Motors, with revenues of over US$ 3.5 billion (FY 2003-04), is a flagship company of the Tata Group. It is the world’s fifth largest medium and heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer and produces more than 150 commercial vehicle models with a range of light, medium to heavy-duty trucks, buses and tractor-trailers. Two of its five passenger vehicle brands are among the top ten selling models in India.