The domestic passenger vehicle segment of Tata Motors is gradually increasing its market share with the Tiago, Tigor, Nexon and the Hexa models even as premium arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) posted staggering losses and dropped into the red in the quarter ending September.

Domestic sales in October grew 11 per cent to 18,290 units compared with 16,475 units a year ago, while the auto industry itself grew 2 per cent.

The growth trajectory in the domestic market has been steady since 2015-2016 — the company sold 125, 952 units in the year that gave it a market share of 4.6 per cent. In 2016-17, it sold 153,150 units with a market share of 5.1 per cent.

In 2017-18, sales stood at 187,321 units that gave it a market share of 5.8 per cent.

In the first quarter, 2018-2019, the company sold 52,937 units with a market share of 6.1 per cent. Cumulative sales for 2018-2019 (April-August 2018) stand at 88,436 units, boosting its market share to 6.2 per cent.

The company introduced four products ahead of the festive season including the Tiago NRG, the Nexon KRAZ limited edition, an upgraded Tigor and performance vehicle range, JTP.

Another launch, the SUV Harrier, is due early 2019. The company rolled out the first Harrier from the new assembly line in its Pune facility.

“The response to this first look has been excellent. The new assembly line has been built in a record six months with the best manufacturing practices adopted from Jaguar Land Rover and boasts 90

per cent automation levels,” said S.N. Burman, vice-president, sales, marketing and

customer support, passenger vehicles business unit, Tata Motors by email.

The Tigor, which had a facelift after 18 months of its launch, has sold over 40,000 units till date. “It does a monthly volume of 2,100 units per month,” said Burman. Regarding the facelift, he said: “We are bringing innovation to market faster keeping customers central to our plans.” When asked about the sales impact, Burman said: 'The initial signs are encouraging.'

The Nexon holds the second position in the compact SUV segment with an average sales of 4,500 units per month while the Hexa, an SUV, has an average sales of 800 units per month.

The satisfactory performance of the company’s new-age vehicles has not prompted it to discontinue its older vehicles Sumo and Safari Storme. “These models continue to be a part of our portfolio and have their own set of customers,” said Burman.