Interview with Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director and CEO of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Limited

So you know when we had launched the punch in October 2021 the value proposition was that we are going to launch a confident looking SUV at a very accessible price which means essentially that somebody who had the affordability of a hatch but had the aspiration of buying an SUV. Punch was the answer to that, with a very good visibility, good command seating position, good ground clearance for all road conditions and a very good feature set at this price point. Apart from that it was a five-star GNCAP car also. So safety could not be compromised. The styling which was loved by the customers should go to the next level, it should become more smarter with new tech features because your customers are young, 70% of the cars are first-time buyers. So keeping all that in mind when we conceived new punch we said that this will be bolder, faster, smarter and safer in all these areas. Whether it is the look of the car, as you can see this is more pronounced from an SUV perspective.

Whether you go to indeed a 10-inch screen, you have a host of other features, wireless chargers, then you have connected car. All these are kind of new features which you don't get. 360-degree surround view is a very appreciated feature. So it's smarter. With a turbocharged engine this becomes more peppy and faster. And of course, safety is a no compromise for Tata Motors. Safety and Tata Motors in the passenger vehicle industry is synonymous. I think we have taken safety to the next level. You today saw a video wherein it crashed with a truck also. So we are showing the real-world situation for people to understand what five-star means. It cannot just be a number but for them to feel more confident of taking these cars to different situations on the highways more confidently with their families.

No, see, you know it's not about one model to the other. It is more about what are the design trends globally, where the design is shifting towards from a trend perspective on the lighting elements, on the digital design language that cars are getting more and more. So you basically see the trend and you don't create a roadmap every two or three years. You see where the design trends are shifting and therefore you want to bring that into the car. That's why when we say of contemporariness and modernity, which means the light has to now move to this kind of lighting. People are now expecting, you can't give halogen light in today's time, right? So it is an evolution coming from how the market is expecting and how the consumers are engaging with other industries also, and therefore their expectations, why cars are becoming so digital heavy because that's the lifestyle of the customer. So it is mimicking the evolution of customer preferences. So that is how the design language will also evolve. It will not have a roadmap in my view.