DHAKA: India’s largest carmaker Tata Motors unveiled its first new models in four years on Monday, banking on two small cars to reverse the company’s sliding passenger car sales in the face of growing foreign competition.

Sales of Tata passenger vehicles in India fell an annual 37 percent in the first nine months of the fiscal year that ends in March, according to data from Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam), the steepest drop in an ailing industry headed for a second straight year of declining sales.

Rising interest rates and high fuel costs in Asia’s third-largest economy, growing at its slowest pace in a decade, have pushed consumers to delay the purchase of big ticket items.

In a bid to revive its fortunes, Tata is pinning its hopes for now on the all-new Bolt hatchback and Zest entry-level sedan to tap into the small car market that accounts for the bulk of passenger vehicle sales in India, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1927 HRS, FEB 03, 2014