Tata Motors Developing New Generation Advance Modular Platform ala VW


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Tata Motor's AMP platform

Tata Motors isn’t in the pink of health, affected seriously as it is by the general sales slowdown that the passenger car category in India has witnessed over the past year or so. The arrival of former General Motors man Karl Slym to the Tata Motors fold coincides with the turnaround plan that the decision makers at Tata have put in place for the Indian car and utility vehicle maker. Team roving eye in the sky, EarthFusion, is keeping a close watch on developments unfolding at Pimpri and we have just hit paydirt today. Tata Motors wants to a Volkswagen(MQB Platform Fame) by developing specific platforms for specific groups of cars and we have confirmation of one such platform from Tata. These platforms will underpin future Tata cars in the coming years.

EarthFusion reports that Tata Motors will launch of a range of next generation hatchbacks under the AMP platform, an acronym for Advanced Modular Platform. This platform will underpin the Dolphin project, a hatchback that will sit between the Nano and the Vista in Tata Motors’ hatchback range. The AMP platform will also underpin other future hatchbacks and this includes the next generation models of the Vista. Similarly, Tata will have a specific platform for its range of sedans such as the Indigo eCS and the Indigo Manza. Tata will also have a specific platform for its utility vehicles that will include MUVs and SUVs. In this light, Tata wants to emulate German car maker Volkswagen in having modular platforms for specific car segments.

The idea behind this platform sharing across Tata cars through common platforms is to share parts and production facilities. Tata Motors’ experiment with the Nano, the world’s least priced car is a testament to what can go wrong if a car fails to do well at the hustings. To build the Nano, Tata established a greenfield manufacturing facility at Sanand. This effort also involved the setting up of a big vendor park beside the main factory that produced the Nano at Sanand. Slow sales at Sanand has meant that the Tata factory is operating at under one third of its installed capacity even as vendors supplying parts for the Nano have had to curtail production on a large scale.

On hindsight, this issue could have been mitigated if the Nano was developed on a modular platform that also plays host to other cars. If the factory was geared to produce multiple cars sharing a platform, Tata Motors could have put the production capacity of Sanand to better use. In future though, Tata new platform sharing approach is expected to result in just that. We’re digging around for more specific information about Tata Motors’ modular platform approach.

ICB Exclusive: Tata Motors wants to do a Volkswagen and here's all the dope - Indian Cars Bikes : Indian Cars Bikes

I guess this platform will be co-developed with JLR, hope they fast track this project.
 
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Re: Tata Motor's AMP platform

JLR, I think, should have one eye on the NANO. As these luxury auto manufacturers try and reduce their carbon footprint, they will have to look at these small limited production niche products. Any one remember the Aston Martins ugly duckling based on the Toyota IQ.

Electric Nano can be a good base.
 
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Re: Tata Motor's AMP platform

I heard that Tata Ace Zip and the iris designed on the nano platform and the Iris is a stunning hit in the Auto taxi segment. Any idea whether this helped Tata to reduce the loss in the Nano project?
 
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Tata learns from Volkswagen -- and targets it - motoring.com.au

Motoring.au reprts that Tata Motors is working on new age "Advanced Modular Platform following the footsteps of VW.The full reoprt:

Ambitious Tata Motors will rely on a Volkswagen-like modular architecture strategy to develop a new range of passenger vehicles aimed at the German giant and the rest of the globe’s biggest car companies.

As reported by motoring.com.au last week, the Indian manufacturer is embarking on an ambitious passenger vehicle overhaul and international expansion from 2014. Now, we can reveal Tata’s new family of mini and small cars and SUVs will be underpinned by a modular monocoque architecture that draws lessons from the Volkswagen Audi Group’s MQB system.

In addition, Tata is planning to unify the next generations of its various heavy duty SUV models and the Xenon pick-up, which is launched in Australia in October, onto a single ladder frame chassis.

The new monocoque architecture is a vital step for Tata as it seeks to modernise its product. Development of the so-called Advanced Modular Platform (AMP) is being led by Englishman, Dr Tim Leverton. Leverton is both research and design chief of Tata Motors, meaning he is not only responsible for the new platforms, but also the company’s new design language.

MQB, which debuted under the Audi A3 and Golf Mk VII last year, is a transverse engine, front and all-wheel drive architecture. It is very flexible and delivers massive costs savings through economies of scale and a quicker, easier manufacturing process than the three platforms it replaces.

It is forecast MQB will be the basis of as many as 40 Volkswagen Group models and more than four million vehicles per year by 2016.

VW’s lead has been followed by other manufacturers, with PSA announcing its EMP2 architecture, while the Renault/Nissan alliance is developing CMF and the Toyota New Global Architecture is on the way.

“We have the opportunity to leapfrog the process that they [VW] have been through,” Leverton told motoring.com.au during a briefing at Tata’s R&D and manufacturing site at Pune in western India last week.

“Volkswagen is probably the most sophisticated in developing that type of architecture. They have done it now through five or six generations of product. We have the chance now to go directly to a very interesting solution and that’s basically what we’re aiming to do.”

Leverton, who has previously served as product development chief at Land Rover and was the chief engineer of BMW-developed Rolls Royce Phantom, hinted at the flexibility AMP would deliver Tata.

“The key difference between what has been platform strategy in the last generations of product and what is a future architecture or modular architecture, is you have the ability to change width as well as length. The key that gives you is the opportunity to cross segments in terms of how you satisfy the final product solution.

“You used to be able to say longer and shorter in terms of different variants, but now you can actually bridge across adjacent segments… And that means you… might only have one architecture,” he told motoring.com.au.

The play from Tata seems certain to involve both upgraded existing platforms for updated versions of existing models and gradual transition to the new architecture with all-new models.

Leverton said a highly flexible architecture was crucial to elevating the standard of Tata passenger vehicle while still meeting the tough conditions and low pricing of the Indian market.

“Modular architecture is what you need to be able to suit that and to be able to meet developed world standards in terms of refinement.”

Complicating the issue is that Indian car buyer expectations are rising as they are exposed to imported brands.

“We are creating something that can be competitive,” Leverton said.

“It’s a stretch. It’s an exciting challenge, but we are in a position to do that ... The [Tata] passenger car business will reinvent itself over the next [few] years.”
 
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Re: Tata Motors developing new gen Advanced Modular Platform ala VW

A good step in a right direction.But TATA has to bring up new and exciting designs if they want to get a decent market share.They have to let go the Indigo and Indica name also.
 

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