Tata Motors is a company that covers all segments of the car industry from small cars to heavy trucks and buses. It is part of the Tata Group which is a huge conglomerate in which cars are but a sideline business. It entered the passenger car business in 1991, making SUVs. Then in 1998, it released the Indica mini 5-door hatchback, then a few years later complemented by the Indigo, a 4-door version of the car.
The Indica pushed the share of Tata in India from 1.2% in 1997 to 10% in 1999. In 2002, it passed 16% but then it slowly slip to 14% by 2009. The tiny Nano was introduced in 2008 and was supposed to bring car ownership to hundreds of thousands of Indians each year didn't achieve anything like that.
By 2014, market share had crashed to 5% and new models were urgently required to meet the increasing competition. The Tiago and then the Nexon and Tigor models did a good job of steadying the ship and regaining some lost ground.
The Harrier midsized crossover came out in 2019, the small Altroz 5-door hatchback in 2020 (picture below the sales data) and the Punch compact SUV in 2021 were a strong assault arsenal to get Tata Motors back to a respectable position. There's no show without Punch.
We can see the benefit those new models have brought Tata Motors over the past few years with market share up to 13.8% and climbing. If the current success can be maintained, Tata will pass Hyundai for second place. Some of its recent SUVs have a hint of Land Rover styling about them. I wonder why?
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