Be A Part Of Brand Saga
To Read This Full Story
Welcome
Be A Part Of Brand Saga
Share your own story with us
And Get Published In Brand Saga
India's first indigenously developed car: Tata Motors Indica
As stated in the book 'The Creation of Wealth', an incident that took place almost 90 years ago is the ideal example of how history always repeats itself. At that time, Jamshedji Tata, Chairman of Tata Group dreamt of making steel in India for the first time. India was never able to produce its own steel until 1903. According to Lala, when he first heard about Tata Steel's efforts, Sir Frederick Upcott, Chief Commissioner of Indian Railways, said, "So, do you mean to say that Tata will produce steel rail tracks as per British specifications? I am ready to eat every rail track made of steel if they succeed in making this!”
A few years later, when the Tata group's steel business became very successful, Dorab Tata, who became chairman after Jamshedji, made a remark, "If Sir Frederick had done what he said he might be suffering from a little indigestion."
There was no shortage of people saying ‘NO’ at that time too. None of them believed in Indian cars but this time no one talked about ‘eating cars’ because Indica weighed about 99 kg (1080 kg) and contained more than 2,000 pieces of steel. It was likely to cause severe indigestion to car eaters! On the other hand, many skeptical people can be ‘accommodated’ in the car as this time Ratan Tata made it clear that the new car should have enough space for an Indian family. In his own words:
“We were designing an Indian car from the beginning. We realized that it was highly condemned, but the shape of the ambassador is ideal for traveling Indians. So we decided to build a car that would have an interior like Ambassador, shape like Maruti Zen, and an easy way to get in and out especially for those sitting in the rear seat. We thought of keeping the price around Maruti 800 which is a very successful car and also considered combining the minimum price of diesel. In the end, we packaged it in a contemporary design. '
These famous words became an invocation for everyone at Tata Motors, and thus began the exciting and laborious journey of making India's first indigenous car by accepting the challenge posed by the company's chairman.
And Get Published In Brand Saga