The Hindu : Business : Kudos to Tata Motors

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 18, 2004

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Business

Kudos to Tata Motors

AND TO Maruti, Hyundai, General Motors, Ford and Fiat, but shame on you, Mahindra and Mahindra.

Make no mistake, Pawan Goenka and his team deserve unrestrained praise for their superb effort in developing the Scorpio and its manufacturing processes, which are now also shared by the Bolero, but their marketing colleagues seem to show a singular lack of responsibility towards the environment. They choose to sell Bharat Stage I versions of the vehicle in large numbers in many of the 11, large and environmentally sensitive, cities where all the other automotive manufacturers have switched to BS II versions — all to save about Rs. 5,000 to 6,000 on very profitable SUVs that cost nearly Rs. 8 lakhs, on the road.

To put this in perspective, Tata Motors only sells BS II Indicas, at less than half the price of the most popular variant of the Scorpio, to all its customers in large cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kanpur and Pune, while M&M sells nearly 99 per cent of its Scorpios in those cities without the cheap and effective exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems that would easily bring their emissions down to BS II levels.

In this irresponsible behaviour, M&M is aided and abetted by its principal financial partners — Kotak Mahindra, ICICI Bank and Citibank. In contrast, the much smaller Oryx and Lease Plan insist that all vehicles that they finance should conform to the BS II norms that a Central Government Gazette notification made mandatory in these 11 cities from April 2003.

On an altogether happier note, this column is pleased to confirm that both M&M and Tata Motors are well advanced developing very `clean,' common rail injected versions of many of their diesel vehicles. In fact it would be no surprise if M&M launched a Euro III compliant version of their best seller before the government's April 2005 dead line mandating that in the 11 aforesaid cities. Although the Tata plans may not be as advanced, they too should be poised to launch competitive versions not long thereafter.

It is understood that in these developments, Tata Motors have chosen to forsake their former consultants, Le Moteur Moderne, in favour of the Austrian firm, AVL, but M&M have gone it alone and not returned to AVL, who originally helped develop the Scorpio's power plant.

This is certainly a measure of self-confidence on Dr. Goenka's part, but no reflection on Tata Motor's. The latter probably chose to get external help partly to speed up the process and to simultaneously develop much more sophisticated versions compatible with Euro IV norms.

It seems likely that the common rail Scorpio engine will continue to be use two valves per cylinder in its BS III (roughly Euro III) guise to mainly to minimise the extra investment in manufacturing facilities. The engine will probably not develop much more peak torque in this form, but that will be available across a much broader engine speed range (2000 to 2800 rpm?). The stress, instead, will be on improving fuel consumption and the Scorpio's already impressive driveability. Reductions in noise, vibration and harshness should also be significant.

On the other hand, it is not clear what approach(es) M&M will take with their other utility products that will have to meet BS II or III standards come April 2005.

Safari and Indigo

In contrast, Tata Motors may choose the four valves per cylinder route for the Safari to simultaneously improve power, torque, economy and above all, driveability, while greatly reducing emissions.

This option will not be as expensive for Tata Motors because at least the cylinder head of the new engine will in any case have to be completely different, thereby requiring a new machining line.

The Indica and Indigo represent a completely different set of challenges because those vehicles are in much more price sensitive markets. It is this column's guess that the Indigos will stick with two valves, not increase peak torque significantly (but considerably broaden it as in the Scorpio) to obviate the need for new gearboxes, and concentrate on improving fuel efficiency, driveability and NVH (Noise Vibration Harshness).

Common rail is relatively expensive technology and is, therefore, unlikely to be universally adopted. Most vehicle manufacturers will, understandably, choose `least cost' technologies for particular market segments. This is likely to range from EGR costing less than Rs 10,000 to common rail systems at over Rs 50,000. Vehicle prices are likely to rise by at least as much.

Reductions in polluting emissions (by about 20 to 40 per cent while going from BS I to II and by about the same from BS II to III) are well worth the monetary costs. If, in the case of diesel vehicles, changes in technology involve going from indirect to direct injection, fuel consumption could improve by 20 to 30 per cent.

Not inconsequential by any measure!

C. Manmohan Reddy

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