Transport World Africa puts Rudrarup Maitra in the hot seat, during the South African launch of the Tata Prima extra-heavy vehicle range.

Is South Africa the first African country to receive the Prima range?
RM: This is the first official launch of the Prima range in Africa. Having said that, we have seeded a few units of the Prima LX variant in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique, and have received very good responses from our customers.

What type of presence does Tata have on the African continent?
We have a presence in most of the major markets in Africa. We are represented in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe (not to mention South Africa). In all these markets, we have a fairly large presence in the commercial vehicle segment and Tata vehicles are quite popular among customers.As far as commercial vehicle market shares are concerned, we have about 13% in Kenya, 36% in Tanzania and about 68% in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle market in Mozambique.

How is the Prima suited to African conditions and markets?
Thanks to our decades of experience in Africa, we have studied and understood the customer requirements in a detailed manner. The aggregates of the Prima range have been customised to the operating needs of our customers.Customer needs have been mapped and the features have been fine-tuned to the specific applications of specific customers. There has been a lot of collaboration from our global vendors and we have sourced the best aggregates from across the world to bring a truly smart truck to our customers. Years of testing have also given us flexibility and an understanding of what is required for a particular market.

The testing regime for the Prima has been quite extensive…
It has; we completed two-and-a-half years of rigorous local testing at Gerotek. We also conducted extensive field trials in Kuwait and the UAE in very hot and dusty conditions. Then we went to Russia to evaluate the Prima in extremely cold conditions. The temperature range we tested the Prima in varied from -35°C to 55°C – while operating under extreme circumstances. This is apart from the OEM testing regimes conducted in India and South Korea. And of course, we also had to meet certain homologation processes in various markets as well.

Tata currently has a 6% share of the medium commercial vehicle and heavy commercial vehicle market in South Africa. What are your market share goals and how will the Prima help to achieve this?
With the Prima range, we are entering the extra-heavy commercial vehicle segment wherein we had a very limited product offering before. This is a fairly new segment for us in South Africa and the Prima will allow us to address a significant portion of the EHCV segment. Our market share will improve – and we are aiming at a double-digit figure at least. Having said that, it is more important that we have happy customers. Extensive work has been done in sales, after sales, training, and in the supply chain management of our parts supply to ensure customer satisfaction. We prefer to build higher CSI scores than chase increased market share at the moment.

The Prima range has an attractive warranty.
The manufacturer warranty is indeed very attractive on the Prima range. For tractors, we are offering a four-year/450 000 km drivetrain warranty and for tippers it is four years/ 5 000 hours. We also understand that our clients operate across borders and, to take care of their interests, we provide a roaming warranty in 14 countries within Southern Africa. We believe that after-sales support must be uniform, regardless of country and staff. So we have provided rigorous sales and service training to our staff to benchmark against the best in the world.

The Prima is very much a global truck when you look at the engine and driveline suppliers used and the Eurocentric styling. We have a very long association with leading technology brands and suppliers. Tata has a joint venture with Cummins in India and we’ve used the aggregates of various vendors found in the Prima in the past as well. Our decision comes back to vehicle configuration and the need to aggregate best-suited products for each specific market.

Infrastructure development in Africa is big news right now…Our Prima tippers have been designed with mining and construction projects in mind. They are ideal for road construction, among other tasks. We believe that we have an excellent range of products available, and we have already sold a number of tippers in India, Southern Africa, East Africa, Qatar and the UAE. The feedback we have received has been excellent. We are tracking infrastructure developments in East Africa very closely as they are a key driver for the demand of extra-heavy commercial vehicles.

Do you have plans to assemble the Prima range in South Africa? We have a local plant in Rosslyn, Pretoria, for predominantly the medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment. We want to add value locally and bring manufacturing closer to home. We will attempt to make some variants of the Prima in South Africa by the first quarter of 2016, which will reduce the cost of logistics in the supply chain.

Does Tata provide in-house financing? Yes; TACSA, our distributor for trucks and buses in South Africa, has set up TACSA Financial Services, which helps our customers get quick and easy financing. We have a relationship with WesBank that allows us to offer preferred financing rates to our esteemed customers.

What plans do you have for the 2015 Johannesburg International Motor Show? We will show fresher variants of the Prima, which will address the needs of different sub-segments. New products will also be launched. We are very excited about our prospects and are encouraged by the enthusiasm we’ve received from financial institutions and customers during the launch of the Prima. After the show, you will see a resurgence of Tata Motors in South Africa, with a fresh look and feel.

Tell us about the parts distribution centre. We have an excellent warehousing system in Johannesburg and TACSA ensures a 24- to 48-hour delivery time in South Africa for all available parts. Our spare-parts warehouse near Mumbai, India, receives parts from six different plants spread across the country and several hundred vendors within specified timelines. All fast-moving parts for the Prima have already been stocked in South Africa to service our customers.

Tata has a workhorse perception. How will Prima change this while remaining affordable? We have really focused on the looks, design, comfort, driving experience and safety aspects of the Prima. The positive feedback shows that our customers are recognising that this is a new-generation truck. With a best-in-class Cummins engine and Eaton/ZF gearbox, it is truly one of the best drivelines in the world in its segment. It will take time before we are recognised as a brand that offers true value trucking at its best. The Prima offers the best of every world and can stretch the rand without compromise. In today’s economic environment, we all could do with some of that.