With the upcoming Curvv SUV Coupe, Tata Motors, which has an overall 18.5 per cent share of the SUV market in India, is eyeing a foothold in the mid-SUV segment where it has no presence so far.
The car is set for a launch on August 7, and the first look has been unveiled without disclosing the price. Cars in the mid-SUV segment (which is about 4.3 metres in length) come in a wide price range – from Rs 10 lakh and going up to Rs 20 lakh.
Speaking to Business Standard, Vivek Srivatsa, chief commercial officer at Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, said, “The price band in this category starts around Rs 10 lakh and goes up to Rs 20 lakh or so. We want to be present across the price band, which means we will have multiple engine options – EV, internal combustion engine (ICE) in diesel and petrol.”
Curvv will be launched with the EV version, and within a month the ICE versions will come. EV customers also want a higher range. “With this car, this may as well be the single car in the household. With smaller EVs, many are using it as a second car or use it only as city cars,” he said. Tata Motors has earlier indicated that it is now trying to attract conventional customers into buying EVs as the early adopters have already bought.
SUVs as a category overall have grown from a 20 per cent share of the passenger vehicle market about five years back to more than a 50 per cent share now. Along with this, there has been a lot of fragmentation as well – sub-compact SUVs (3.8 metres in length), compact SUVs (up to 3.99 metres), mid-SUV (about 4.3 metres) and then high-SUV (4.5-4.6 metres); and finally larger SUVs which go beyond that.
Mid-SUVs are emerging as the largest category within the SUVs, commanding a market share in excess of 33 per cent – or more than one-third of the SUV volumes come from this category. Sub-compact SUVs have a 20 per cent share in the overall SUV segment, and compact SUVs will have around 25 per cent. The remaining come from high-SUVs and beyond.
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Entry into the mid-SUV segment was inevitable as the numbers show that sub-compact and mid-SUVs are growing faster than the rest of the sub-categories. In FY24, sub-compact SUVs more than doubled (110 per cent growth), while mid-SUVs grew by 41 per cent or so. Compact and high-SUV sales were slightly down. In Q1 FY25, sub-compact SUVs continued to grow strongly – 75 per cent, while mid-SUVs clocked a 20 per cent growth. See chart.
“Overall in SUVs we have about an 18.5 per cent market share, considering we are not even present in the mid-SUV category. In the sub-compact category we have a 40 per cent market share, in the compact SUV segment we have about a 28 per cent share, and in the high-SUV category we have a 26 per cent share,” Srivatsa said.
“There’s no reason why we can’t replicate similar performance in the mid-SUV category as well,” he added. The mid-SUV segment has the potential of contributing one-third of its SUV volumes, and Srivatsa says they are definitely looking at that.
Tata Motors has cars in the sub-compact (Altroz), compact (Punch and Nexon), and also in high-SUV (Harrier and Safari). But they were absent in the mid-SUV category.
“We obviously needed to enter this category, and realised that we are perhaps the seventh or eighth manufacturer entering this space, and definitely didn’t have an early mover advantage,” admitted Srivatsa.
He added that when one gets into a category late, which is full of intense competition, one needs to have a differentiated offering. Design was the differentiator.
“Typically, SUVs are high stance, boxy in shape, and have a big glass area. We thought we could come up with something which is far more appealing, appears more premium, and without compromising on practicality. That’s the reason we came with Curvv – which is a coupe to make a strong entry into the mid-SUV category,” he explained.
“Our intent is not to create a separate category for SUV coupes, but use the SUV coupe to get into the largest SUV category of mid-SUVs,” he said.
Curvv will be manufactured at the Ranjangaon plant.
Srivatsa claimed they expect cannibalisation of the high-SUV segment of theirs as those cars have much larger powertrains. “There will be overlaps, and some consumers who have to choose between the top-end versions of the mid-SUV and the entry-level variants of high-SUV, may take a call,” he said.
Consumer Segment
The main source of customers for mid-SUVs are those upgrading from earlier cars which could be hatchbacks or even sedans, or even smaller SUVs. It’s the kind of customer who wants one car at home with which they can carry five people, have boot space, and also go on long drives or travel within the city. Earlier, the big car used to be the sedan, and now it’s the mid-SUV.
“It’s definitely a family of at least three to four people and this is perhaps their second or third car purchase. Lots of women are also opting for mid-SUVs – which are not too big, and have very specific features,” he said.
Also, the SUV coupe as a category has actually done very well in the premium car segment. The three major German luxury car manufacturers have very strong SUV play, and the SUV coupe body style, for which the consumers are willing to pay more.
“There is a certain snob value and premium value attached to a coupe body style. That is something we hope to replicate in the mid-SUV category with this design,” he said.
