Tata Motors Sanand plant crosses 1 million car rollout milestone

AHMEDABAD: Tata Motors' first plant at Sanand near here on Friday achieved the production milestone of 1 million cars as the facility set up to produce small cars nearly 14 years ago has become the launchpad for electric vehicles and factory-fitted CNG cars.

The factory, set up over an area of 1,100 acres comprising 360 acre vendor park, contributes to 20 per cent of the company's total car production, said Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicle and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility.

"This is a major milestone for the Sanand-1 plant. This factory was established in January 2010 where it started production of small cars. This is the 14th year when we are rolling out the one-millionth vehicle from the plant. It is a big milestone because it was a very challenging time that we started this factory," he said.

The Sanand-1 plant produces petrol, CNG and electric powertrains, and was the first Tata Motor factory for CNG and electric cars, he said.

From the powertrain perspective, the mix of the factory is 40 per cent electric and petrol, respectively, and 20 per cent CNG, Chandra said.

"This factory is comprehensive. It does all the operations needed to make a complete car ... It is comprehensive and very automated right from the start. It was made to deliver small cars in a very frugal manner with high quality," he said.

The installed capacity of the plant has risen from 1.35 lakh in 2010 to 1.9 lakh cars today, even as it discontinued rolling out diesel cars, he added.

This is the factory where Tata Motors first started its electric vehicle production, he said.

In December 2017, Tata Motors rolled out the first batch of electric Tigor sedans from its Sanand plant as part of its order to supply electric vehicles to the government-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL).

"At that point in time there was a separate shop dedicated to EV assembly. Today it is seamlessly integrated to the main assembly line which gives it fungibility to shift to electric, CNG.. whichever you want to produce," Chandra said. It is currently running at 70 per cent of its installed capacity," he added.

The MD said that making the operation green is one of the big agenda going forward, with 50 per cent of power consumed in operations here already coming from renewable sources, and the plan is to attain 100 per cent green in the next three years.

"We also carry out a lot of work on CSR. More than 68 villages have been adopted, with focus on the development of toilets, skilling of women and girl child education, etc.," he said.

Going forward, the idea is to enable the plant to make bigger cars, he said.

"The size of cars is getting bigger, and we will have to enable certain shops within the factory to help do that. The plant should have the same flexibility as any other plant to make cars of any size so that you are not vulnerable to segmental shifts and so that the plant is fully utilised," he said.

Multiple powertrains have helped the company protect its volumes, Chandra said. "We have overcome the vulnerability of segmental shift through alternate strategy," he said.

Enhanced safety features and electric cars give the company an opportunity to tap international markets, he said.

"Very soon we will be coming out with our international vision strategy. We want to go very aggressive on international vision going forward," Chandra said.

He said that the volume support of 4.4 million that the market is going to give will be "a very healthy level" for the industry to sustain and to keep investing in future products and capability.