India’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, Tata Motors launched the Ultra Sleek T-Series range of intermediate and light commercial trucks targeted at urban freight movement with a starting price of Rs 13.99 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
The T-Series range is launched with three models having deck lengths of 10 feet at a price of Rs 17.29 lakh, 14 feet priced at Rs 15.29 lakh, and 17 feet priced at Rs 17.29 lakh.All the three models have a good carrying payload of 3.3 to 5.2 tonne.
Girish Wagh, president, commercial vehicle business unit, Tata Motors said, “The T-Series range is complementary to our exiting range. The development of the series started to meet the changing needs of urban transportation. The T-Series comes up with sleeker and wide cabin for efficient transportation
Tata Motors stated that the walk-through cabin is crash-tested and comes equipped with adjustable seat height, tilt-and-telescopic power steering, and a dashboard-mounted gear lever. Also on offer the T-Series has a in-built music system, USB fast charging port, air brakes, and parabolic leaf suspension along with clear-lens headlamps and LED tail-lamps.
With options of 4 and 6 tire combinations the T-Series can cater to the e-commerce industry, FMCG, industrial goods, LPG cylinders, and refrigerated containers for transportation of Covid-19 vaccine, pharmaceuticals as well as food items such as eggs, milk, and fresh farm produce.
The trucks come with an indigenously built 100bhp diesel engine with a torque rating of 300nm. Being a modular platform Tata Motors has kept the option of increasing the power in the future.
Wagh added that we have an option of getting other engines onboard in the T-Series”,The domestic commercial volumes of Tata Motors returned to the black in February when the company clocked a growth of 21 percent compared to the same month last year. Though the growth was comparable to the low base of last year when the industry was in the midst of the transition to Bharat Stage VI a spike in the volume indicated a revival.
February volumes of Tata Motors increased to 36,400 units while in earlier months clocked volumes of around 33,000 or less. Wagh indicated that demand tailwinds are easing off some of the headwinds leading to a pick-up in demand.
“The tailwinds seem to improve with demand coming back in tipper and haulage in medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment. However increasing costs are putting pressure on the transporters margins”, Wagh added.