While Tata Motors would formally unveil the booking numbers for its recently launched sedan Zest next month, the car has evoked sharp interest with a large number of walk-in and online inquiries, said a company official.
?Booking numbers will be announced next month. After the Zest was launched last week, we have received over 10,000 walk-in queries and about 26,000 inquiries online and at the call centre,? said a Tata Motors spokesperson. ?Our focus is on rolling out the Zest to most cities and dealers this week. We have just begun to collate the data into the system,? the spokesperson added.
Tata Motors dealers are enthusiastic about the rise in footfalls and inquiries. ?The footfall over the weekend has been tremendous, but we are waiting for them to convert to actual sales,? said a Tata Motors dealer in Mumbai.
?Looking at the interest shown in the new launch, we expect sales to pick up. Overall, we expect the sales to reach 4,000-5,000 levels,? said a dealer who owns Tata Motors showrooms in key cities.
Tata Motors had sold 12,143 passenger vehicles in July, a decline of 33% y-o-y. Analysts believe the biggest challenge for Tata Motors is to break the perception that it cannot make good cars. ?Even if the company sells 4,000 vehicles, it will help draw 30-35% incremental volumes, which will be a good headstart for the carmaker,? said Dharmesh Shah, auto analyst at SBICap Securities.
Tata Motors is pinning hopes on the success of its two new cars, the Zest and the Bolt. With the Zest, the company undertook a disruptive pricing strategy, launching it at an aggressive price tag of Rs 4.83 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai) for the entry-level petrol variant. The base diesel variant carries a price tag of Rs 5.88 lakh. At these prices, the Zest is cheaper than Maruti Suzuki?s Swift Dzire and the Honda Amaze.
