Tata Motors on Tuesday celebrated the silver jubilee of its highly successful commercial vehicle, the Tata 407. Launched in 1986, Tata 407 has sold over 5 lakh units since its launch.
Addressing the media, P. M. Telang, Managing Director-India Operations, said, “Tata 407 was among the first, cutting across industries, to have demonstrated the supremacy of indigenously developed products in the face of international competition”.
In fact, at the time of the 407 launch, India had six players making commercial vehicles and this space was dominated by Japanese giants like Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Mazda. The other players were Standard Motors of the U.K. and Tempo of Germany. But between the late Eighties and late Nineties most of these multinational joint ventures exited the market.
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Mr. Telang said the company reached a market share of 70 per cent within 10 years of its launch, “but since 1996, it has maintained its market dominance with a 75 per cent share. The product will be going in for a major refresh in 2012 with changes in appearance and in aggregates”.
Ravi Pisharody, President-Commercial Vehicles Business Unit, said, “The Tata 407 is exemplary in how a platform can be deployed to meet diverse needs. It today addresses a wide range of goods transportation and people movement solutions, industrial and defence applications in India and about 15 other countries in South Asia and Africa. The plan is now to take it further to Latin America and other countries”.
Tata 407 is available in diesel and CNG options with tonnage ranging from 2.2 to 4.2 payload. The 407 range today includes trucks, tippers, pick-ups and vehicles for agri/food products, construction, light mining and a whole host of services. The portfolio has been regularly upgraded, based on the company's own R&D and customer feedback on operating economy, cabin convenience and safety.
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The Tata 407 also spawned the company's Cityride fully built buses in 12-24 seat variants and following the company's joint venture with Marcopolo of Brazil in 2006, the platform was included in the Starbus range as a 24-seat variant and 12-18 seat luxury variants.
The buses too are available in both diesel and CNG variants.
More recently, the EX-2 Refresh series was launched and in 2009, the 407 Pick-up was introduced which has the shortest overall length, smallest turning circle with largest loading area and highest payload in the category.
The company said the 407 pick-up was among the fastest selling clocking monthly sales of around 1,000 units.