Long waiting period for Tata Zest diesel automatic

The Tata Zest XMA F-Tronic, which is India’s most affordable diesel automatic at Rs 6.99 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), is proving to be popular with potential buyers, since bookings opened. The Zest F-Tronic AMT will be in showrooms only after about two months, but according to dealers, this model is receiving majority of the enquiries and prospective buyers are already queuing up for it. Currently, the waiting period for the Zest XMA F-Tronic AMT variant is estimated at around three to four months.

It appears that a shortage in supply of AMTs is causing the increased waiting periods. Tata sources its AMT boxes locally from Magneti Marelli, which has been unable to ramp up production to match the demand. Magneti Marelli which has a joint-venture with Maruti in India, supplies the AMT boxes for the Maruti Celerio hatchback as well. The Celerio AMT witnessed massive demand that led to waiting period of up to 8 months (now down to 6-7 months). Supply of the AMT boxes to Maruti could be first on Magneti’s priority list which will add further pressure to the Zest F-Tronic AMT supply.

Magneti Marelli plans to set up an assembly unit for making AMTs at Manesar within a year but till then there is uncertainty about the speedy availability of the AMTs. Girish Wagh, senior VP (Programme Planning and Project Management), passenger vehicles, Tata Motors said that the company has been engaged in talks with Magneti Marelli at the highest level to secure supplies of AMT kits over the past 4-5 months.

According to dealers; owing to the Zest’s aggressive pricing and attractive features, it has already started receiving a good number of bookings (booking amount Rs 21,000) and is garnering a lot of attention. Non-AMT models have a waiting period of around 45-60 days. Some dealers have more base trims in stock so the waiting period for these models is around a month. With the burgeoning demand for AMT-equipped models, possibility of an increased waiting period for the automatic diesel variant cannot be ruled out.

The Zest sedan is a crucial part of Tata’s effort to bounce back in the Indian car market. The company has confirmed that it has received around 25,000 enquiries pan-India. Tata has also revealed the first 100 customers in NCR, of which 35 are for the petrol variant and 65 for the diesel. Tata will be officially releasing the total number of bookings on September 1.