Company underestimated demand for the Zest.
Speaking to the Economic Times, Tata Motors' newly-appointed president for passenger cars, Mayank Pareek, said that he was disappointed over the delays in delivery of the new Zest compact sedan.
Launched in August this year, certain variants of the Zest, especially the AMT-equipped diesel, command several months of waiting period, which could put off customers, as rival products like the Honda Amaze, Hyundai Xcent and Maruti Dzire are available off the shelves, or with minimum waiting time.
"Efforts are on to ramp up production", Mr. Pareek told the publication. He also confessed that Tata underestimated customer expectations, and should have managed supplies better.
The Zest posted steady increase in sales since its launch. The months of August, September and October saw the car sell 2,671, 3,331 and 3,524 units respectively. The sedan is also the single best selling product for the Indian carmaker.
Available with a petrol and diesel engine, a 5-speed automated manual transmission is offered exclusively on the latter. This makes it the most affordable automatic diesel car in the country, and the only automatic diesel car in its segment.
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The Zest is currently manufactured at the Tata-Fiat joint venture plant in Ranjangaon, Maharashtra.
[Source - Economic Times]
