Johnny Oommen is the head of International Business - Passenger Vehicles at Tata Motors Limited. Oommen was recently in Nepal to launch Tata’s new compact sedan, the Zest. Suman Bashyal of The Kathmandu Post caught up with Oommen to talk about Tata’s performance and plans for the Nepali market.

Tata is launching a new product after a long gap. What are your expectations from the Nepali market?

The Nepali market is very small as only 0.5 percent of the total population owns vehicle. It’s a market which has the potential to grow. We can definitely expect the number of new customers will grow. With the growing economy, customers’ aspirations will also grow.

On the back of the completely new products, that we believe it will absolutely delight the customers and we hope we would be able to increase our market share here. Two years ago, we launched an initiative called “Horizonnext” that has four pillars—state-of-the art products, world-class manufacturing plants, enriching customer’s purchasing experience and existing quality of service .

The Zest represents first example of this initiative. It clearly showcases the three key vectors of DesigNext, DriveNext and ConnectNext to deliver best-in-class performance with unparalleled driving pleasure in a spacious, dynamic, comfortable and stylish sedan.

It also comes with various innovative technologies and style and the price is also very competitive. For the first time, we developed the “Revotron” engine in petrol variants, and diesel variants come with automated manual transmission (AMT). So we are looking forward to how customers react to this product.

Which of Tata products—hatchback, SUV and sedan—is doing well in Nepal?

Our presence is really big in the utility vehicles segment. Tata Sumo and Safari have been large sellers for the last few years. We are really

looking to strengthen our presence in the sedan and hatchback segments. Hatchback actually is the largest in the overall market. Even without a significance presence in hatchback or sedan segment, we are already in the top three position in Nepal. With the first entry to the compact sedan segment, we want to enhance our presence in the overall segment.

What are your strategies to compete against market leaders like Mauri Suzuki and Hyundai?

The market itself is relatively small. Thanks to the tax structure, motor cars are not affordable to a large portion of the population. However, we will try to offer the best products at affordable prices. Our ambition is to launch two new products every year in the Nepali market. With this, we should be able to witness a significant growth from the market.

Any new launches this year?

I can’t say much about the models, but customers can look forward to new products after the Zest. Probably, Tata Bolt and Nano Twist will arrive by this year.

Do u have any plan to start assembling cars in Nepal?

In passenger vehicles, I can tell you there no plan yet. For an assembly plant to make sense, the market has to be large enough and you need a supplier base that supports. In Nepal, we don’t have an adequate components supplier base and the government’s policy is not coming favorable for automobiles to assemble products here. There is a long way to go for assembly operations.