Tata Motors today announced that its Sanand facility has reached 100 percent capacity utilization and that it will ramp up production to meet future demands. Back in 2014, the same plant which was only making the Tata Nano, was heavily under utilized and was running on a 3 day week schedule to manage inventory.
However, fortunes have now turned as the Sanand plant manufactures the successful Tata Tiago, apart from the Tata Tigor and Nano models across "21 variants with 150 vehicle combinations". The plant also manufactures engines, namely the Revotron 1.2L Petrol (Manual and Automated Manual Transmission), Revotorq 1.05L Diesel (Manual), the 624 cc MPFI Petrol (Manual and Automated Manual Transmission) and the 1.2L Turbocharged Petrol (Manual and Automated Manual Transmission) for the Tata Nexon.
The Sanand plant contributes 60 percent of the overall PV production, and is set to cross the 5,00,000 milestone in October 2018. At present, the plant has a manufacturing capacity of 1,54,000 units per annum, and Tata is "mapping out its modular architecture plans and will distribute its Passenger Vehicle manufacturing between Pune and Sanand to meet its product expansion plans", the company said in a statement.
Also read: Tata Nexon gets 4/5 stars in Global NCAP crash test [Video]
According to media reports, Tata will soon announce the discontinuation of the Nano owing to poor sales, and will not launch an immediate successor. Tata's upcoming product onslaught till 2020 includes the Harrier SUV, the Harrier 7-seat derivative, the X451 premium hatchback and the X445 mid-size sedan. The launch of these products will see Tata move towards a two-platform strategy, and either of these products could be produced at the Sanand plant.
