Once again the Tata Zest compact sedan was spotted in Aundh, Pune by our reader Dinesh Tiwari. The Zest has started to lose the camouflage mildly as the launch of the compact sedan comes closer. The model spotted was the top-end diesel variant featuring the new F-Tronic AMT gearbox and will make the compact sedan the most affordable diesel automatic in the country. Tata Motors is also working to cut down on the mounting losses with revising the production plans.
In a bid to curb mounting losses, Tata Motors is restructuring production across its six manufacturing facilities in order to improve margins. The next couple of months will see Tata shut down assembly lines, shift production between plants and add products at factories previously dedicated to manufacture other models. The company is shifting the production base for the Bolt hatchback from the part Fiat owned Ranjangaon plant to Tata’s own plant in Pune. The Zest compact sedan on the other hand will be manufactured at Tata-Fiat plant at Ranjangaon alongside the Punto and Linea.
Tata Motors is also planning to make the under-used Sanand plant (that manufactures the Nano) which has a capacity to build 20,000 cars a month, more useful by manufacturing the Indica eV2 replacement at the facility. Currently the Sanand plant produces the Nano, with the production limited to 1000-2000 units a month; however the new car will be a volume puller like the Indica and will be based on the ‘X0’ platform to be produced alongside the Nano in 2015.
With the Nano diesel project being on hold temporary, Tata Motors will be concentrating on bringing the new small car in the market that will be competing against the Maruti Suzuki Wagon R, Hyundai i10 and the likes in the segment. Tata’s mounting losses and the fall in the passenger vehicle market has led to the company making some drastic changes; however, betting big on the success of the Bolt and Zest, Tata is all set to make it big once again.
