Confident of outperforming the market when demand picks up, says Tata Motors’ MD

Tata Motors' MD Guenter Butschek is confident of the company beating expectations with roll out of BS-VI compliant vehicles in January.

“The month of December marks a milestone as far as BS-IV is concerned because we expect peak in demand, which is going to facilitate a smooth transition into BS-VI where we start rolling out the BS-VI vehicles, which we are going to take to the next level in beating expectations in the month of January,” he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

When asked about demand growth slowdown concerns he said some 18 months ago they had mentioned that it would not be long-lasting and it is possible that we would see a recovery in one-two quarters. "In the meanwhile, since the question is asked again – the only point is even if the answer remains the same, we are now talking about 12-18 months of slowdown, which is a very unusual characteristic because it is – on one hand – cyclical as far as the economic impact is concerned but on the other side it is also structural as far as the change in customer demand, the change in customer expectations is concerned. It is also partly triggered because the industry needs to move from a wholesale driven approach, which has been serving as the reference for the market chain to retail fuel.”