Fight Between Tata Motors & Mahindra & Mahindra To Be Longer and More Intense

Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, two home-grown auto firms, find themselves yet again in a pitched battle for the third position in domestic passenger vehicles. But the fight this time promises to be longer and more intense.

- Sumant Banerji

In their respective journeys spanning over seven decades, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra – two of India’s biggest and strongest home-grown automobile companies – have often found themselves staring at each other in the face. At the height of the craze for diesel vehicles in the domestic market in 2013/14, Mahindra outstripped Tata to become the third-largest player in the highly competitive passenger vehicle segment. The government’s fuel pricing policies helped Mahindra – a 24-per litre gap between diesel and petrol fuelled demand for diesel-powered SUVs, helping the company at the cost of Tata. It coincided with a period of prolonged slump for Tata and for some time, Mahindra remained head and shoulders ahead of its compatriot.

The tide has turned. The diesel bull run has ended – a litre of petrol today costs only about 6 more than diesel, and the share of diesel vehicle sales has dropped from a high of 47 per cent in 2012/13 to 35 per cent in this fiscal so far. It is Mahindra facing the macroeconomic headwinds now, made worse by its inability to counter competition on its own turf. At the same time, Tata Motors has got a second lease of life courtesy an overhaul of its portfolio and multiple launches in the last two years. As a result, while Mahindra has lost some ground — its market share has dropped from 11.57 per cent in FY13 to 6.98 per cent this fiscal (AprilDecember 2018) — Tata has edged up from a low of 5.35 per cent in fiscal 2015 to 6.8 per cent.