27 July, 2015, The Hindu Business Line
The Ace mini truck, which marked the beginning of a new category of small commercial vehicles from Tata Motors, has celebrated its tenth anniversary.
The Tata Ace was launched in 2005 when Tata Motors recognised a latent customer need to create a completely new market segment to pioneer the concept of mini-truck in India. It has since garnered a lion’s share in this market segment with an 85% market-share. The Tata Ace family has surpassed the 1.5 million sales mark in these ten years, and today one in every five commercial vehicle sold in India, is from this family.
Speaking at an event to mark the milestone, R. Ramakrishnan, Senior Vice President, Commercial Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors, said “Tata Ace has been a revolutionary product. While we feel this is only the beginning of a long successful journey, we are proud that the Ace family has been the preferred choice for last mile transportation, selling over 1.5 million vehicles, globally, since inception and has been responsible for generating entrepreneurship and employment in many parts of India. Making this journey special are over 1 million customers, who have trusted the brand and have grown in the businesses.”
The platform has thus far produced about 12 offerings, based on engine type, engine power & body configurations. At present, about 1,600 showrooms, sell the Ace variants. Production capacity too has grown commensurately starting from 30,000 units per year produced in Pune to a dedicated plant in Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) which today has a capacity of 5,00,000 units per year. To meet the growing demand, in 2012, Tata Motors commenced production of the Tata ACE Zip at the new plant in Dharwad.
