It's possibly the most anticipated launch of 2025 and it is one of the biggest launches for Tata Motors. Yes, the Tata Sierra has just been launched and talking to me about this very critical and key model, I have with me the managing director of Tata Motors passenger vehicles, Shailesh Chandra. Shailesh, congratulations. I think really what we've seen, the product has come out absolutely fantastic. Social media has exploded. Firstly, I just want to get before we get into it your response, because clearly I think this has been a long awaited product, but we haven't driven it or test driven it yet, but still I think the anticipation has been phenomenal.
Absolutely. Since the time we started the teasers and then we had the brand day where people first time physically experienced the car, the interiors, exteriors, the proportion and size of the car, you can see that the response and reviews have been phenomenal. It was a big responsibility on us because it was an iconic brand discontinued maybe 25 years back which was brought to the market 35 years back maybe, and at that point in time it was very ahead of its time. It was the first car literally which defined what lifestyle SUVs are in the country. So it came with a responsibility. A lot of us who were growing in that period of the '90s, this was always a dream car for us. I remember for the last five years I have been getting so many mails that say bring back Sierra. So it comes with great responsibility and therefore when we were conceptualizing Sierra in its new avatar, we had to reimagine this for a whole new generation. It was not about just Gen X, but it was more important to make it relevant for Gen Y and Gen Z. You'll see that on one hand it keeps the DNA of the OG Sierra from a silhouette perspective, upright, boxy, wraparound glass and all, but from inside you see the premiumness, the whole spaciousness, and the tech stack is a notch ahead of what you see in this segment or even higher segments. That is how we have conceived it. We are positioning this car as a premium mid SUV, and I hope that this is going to really do well.
So, before getting into the product, you talked about Sierra obviously bringing back an old nameplate. Does it really resonate because don't forget, it's been lost for over 20 years. So do you think there is still a recall of the name because there's a new generation possibly who are not aware of this?
You're absolutely right. The idea was not that it has to be just evoking the nostalgia factor of the old era because that is only relevant to people who have seen the car, say Gen X. It was more important to keep it relevant for Gen Y and Gen Z. That has been the reason why a Gen Y and Gen Z lives a digital lifestyle and therefore you'll see this is the first car with 5G connectivity in a nice car. It has those triple screen infotainment system, it is L2 plus ADAS, connected car features are immense. So it has been kept in mind that this generation would require that kind of a car. But at the same time, the timeless design of Sierra is the DNA which has been carried forward because it is timeless. For even the young generation, that is how it has been conceived. The idea was not to just relate to the generation which had seen or dreamt of Sierra but be more relevant for Gen Y and Z.
For even the young generation, right? So that is how it has been conceived. So the idea was not to just relate to the generation which had seen or dreamt of Sierra but be more relevant for Gen Y and Z.
Right? And you know, Shesh, a lot has been thrown into the Sierra. Two new engines, all new engines. You've got an upgraded diesel also. So just your thoughts. Normally you don't have a new car and a new powertrain. It's really stretching the resources or even the engineering bandwidth of the company. But you've done this. So you're even debuting a new engine which in a way seems overshadowed by the Sierra itself. You'll be having it in the Harrier as well. So just your thoughts on the powertrain as well and even slipping in a 1.5 NA, clearly that strategy to get a low entry point, low price point which you have done quite clearly as we've seen.
No indeed. In engineering terms we call this the highest scale program, highest scale in every sense. It's a new powertrain, it's a new platform, it's a new top hat. It has a lot of tech elements which are also new for the first time. And it has a new manufacturing facility for engine, it has a new manufacturing facility for the whole product also. So on the scale, 5-5-5-5 is how we call it. So there's the highest scale program. Remember, this is also a big inflection point for us because till 2020 our life was less than 4-meter cars which required engines that were smaller like 1.2 and 2 liter. Yes, you had a Harrier, Safari, but there was a wide space left in between. You're also seeing the market transitioning to bigger cars. Greater than 4-meter car will be the world which in the coming years will progress to that. So this was an inflection point in the sense that you needed to come with wherewithals from an architecture perspective, from powertrain perspective which is helping the organization move to a different portfolio of cars going forward. So this was definitely a complex and high scale program for us in all senses, but keeping fingers crossed, everything has been coming out well. It is the first SDV also, a lot of new tech in this car which is also being introduced for the first time.
Right, but you know Shesh, honestly from your company's point of view, that's really a stretch of bandwidth. Given global companies don't normally do this. So what was the challenge in trying to get all this together? Because clearly as I said earlier, you've got everything new in this car. Everything is absolutely new. I don't think there's anything carryover from any previous model, maybe a few bits or maybe the diesel engine for one, but other than that it's all new. So clearly engineering, developing, getting the supply chain done, testing, validating, and of course key thing is making sure that it's reliable. What were really the challenges? And this program really spread over quite some years.
Yeah. I think you have actually laid down the challenges because the biggest challenge of doing all this what you said was the timeline in which we had to deliver. We really started this project in 2022 from a productionization perspective. Before that we were showing certain concepts and all, but when you really try to see the engineering feasibility of what concepts you have, then that is when the reality hits you. At that point in time, multiple iterations we went through, always keeping in mind that whether the car is also relatable to the old one. Putting a new engine, developing the new engine simultaneously, two of them which is GDI and NA. I must give credit to Narend Kartiken also who throughout the development process has been the critique for us and he did not allow anything which was slightly below the benchmark to go. So that really helped in the development process. But bringing a new engine, the whole factory, engine factory, and you got the opportunity to oversee the factory. It is being made in Sanand 1 which was the old factory that we had, state-of-the-art factory. So it took a lot of stretch on our manufacturing team and manufacturing engineering team to make it happen in this short period of time and also proving the process right. The Sanand 2 plant which is the Ford factory that we acquired, possibly the best factory even Ford would have had, retooling that to the new product really took us a lot of time, but the manufacturing quality from that plant has been impeccable even from the time when we shifted the Nexon to Sanand 2. The quality levels have been very high, very automated plant. So it was definitely a challenge to deliver all this in this short period of time, but I think we have not cut corners. We have ensured that we have tested it and validated it rigorously. Even on the software development side, there has been a lot of maturity on the process and system in the last 2 years. We have gone through a massive learning curve. We have created a centralized software integration team. We have gone first time in this car the process of co-locating the supplier team also so that we are maturing the software. We have gone for synchronous release of software. So a lot of work has gone behind in ensuring that the maturity of this car and craftsmanship is well taken care of.
But bringing a new engineering, the whole factory, engine factory, and you got the opportunity to oversee the factory. World-class factory.
It is being made in Sanand 1 which was the old factory that we had, state-of-the-art factory. So it took a lot of stretch on our manufacturing team and manufacturing engineering team to make it happen in this short period of time and also proving the process right. The Sanand 2 plant which is the Ford factory that we acquired, possibly the best factory even Ford would have had, retooling that to the new product really took us a lot of time, but the manufacturing quality from that plant has been impeccable even from the time when we shifted the Nexon to Sanand 2. The quality levels have been very high, very automated plant. So it was definitely a challenge to deliver all this in this short period of time, but I think we have not cut corners. We have ensured that we have tested it and validated it rigorously. Even on the software development side, there has been a lot of maturity on the process and system in the last 2 years. We have gone through a massive learning curve. We have created a centralized software integration team. We have gone first time in this car the process of co-locating the supplier team also so that we are maturing the software. We have gone for synchronous release of software. So a lot of work has gone behind in ensuring that the maturity of this car and craftsmanship is well taken care of.
I just want to talk on the Sanand factory. I mean clearly you acquired a factory which was obviously at that time state-of-the-art, but there's also a certain culture which comes with that factory because quite honestly, this factory seems to have a certain culture which has come from Ford. I mean a lot of people want cars coming out of this factory and maybe not Ranjangaon, talking specifically the Nexon. So is this also something which you inherited which was in a way a bonus which maybe you never realized? The way the people, the work culture in the factory.
I would say the people are the biggest assets that we got from Ford because ultimately your processes will definitely align to the internal processes, but a lot of culture and practices is what we took forward from Ford. We ensured that the same leaders within that factory were retained and they were given the power to retain the culture. So even if the highest level of person went there from our side, that person changed to that culture. We call a culture which is what is called as an inverted pyramid. The leader there is the facilitator, he's not the person who takes decisions. The guy on the line is empowered. The safety culture, a lot of learnings that we got from them, workplace safety. And just to ensure that we are also cross-pollinating this culture to other plants, we actually took a Ford shop manager to become the Sanand plant head also. So a lot of good learnings have come, a lot of culture from our side on frugality and all has also got. So we have taken the best of best in that factory and it is really working well and we are imbibing a lot of good practices from that factory also which we inherited.
