Tata Motors may produce other models also at Sanand

Tata Motors is looking to add production of more vehicle models at its Sanand plant to make the operations more viable, according to industry sources. This plant with a capacity of 2.5 lakh units a year is dedicated to making the Nano. But with monthly sales volumes of the small car turning out to be much lower than the capacity at the plant, adding other models to the production line would help the company and its suppliers be more profitable at the location.

“To utilise the vacant capacity, they (Tata Motors) will look to make more products at the plant, maybe shift some models from plants in Pantnagar or Dharwar. We look at Tata Motors as single customer and don't focus on individual products. And, for the company, Sanand is a strategic location,” a leading supplier to the automaker said.

Though the company has planned to increase Nano's monthly production by fiscal end to 20,000 units from 10,000 units, August sales had dipped by 85 per cent to 1,202 units, a far cry from the peak of 10,012 units Nano saw three months back in April.