Tata wholesale deliveries collapsed by 56% in September, way more than the overall Indian market’s 23% fall after a 31% dive in August. The brand not only dropped a long way behind third placed Mahindra but Toyota, Honda and Renault overtook it. Worse, something once unthinkable could happen in October: relegation to eighth by a new-to-India make.
It would be a terrible humiliation if the new Kia Seltos was able to outsell the entire Tata passenger vehicle line-up, which it got close to doing (7,754 Vs 8,097) last month. At least Ford (5,556, -33%) in ninth and MG (2,608, another new brand) in tenth are no threat.
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Now teetering in seventh position, the Indian OEM may yet be able to turn things around thanks to an armada of imminent new models. Will they be enough though, and can Tata change change its ways by matching the six-seven year lifecycle of more successful brands?
Cars
The brand’s best selling model is the Tiago. This, the first of a pair of models (hatchback and sedan), uses the same architecture as the Bolt and Zest, two unsuccessful small cars. The platform itself is a heavily modified evolution of X1. That architecture dates to the long-ago Indica. Deliveries of the Tiago, which succeeded the Indica eV2, commenced in March 2016.
Premiered as the Tata Zica at the New Delhi auto expo in February 2016, the name was changed to Tiago shortly after the event. A sedan, the Tigor, was announced to the media in February 2017. It went on sale from the following month. The Tigor had been previewed by the Kite5 concept at February 2016’s New Delhi auto expo. Tata Motors calls this small sedan a ‘styleback’. The car was facelifted in October 2018.
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By GlobalDataThe Tiago is built at Tata Motors’ Sanand plant, a facility which had hitherto been operating at around 10% of its capacity. Sanand’s previous main product was the Nano.
Facelifts for the Tiago and Tigor should happen in 2020. Replacements are due in 2024, possibly 2025, which means there will likely be a second restyle in 2022.
The Zest and Bolt are two other small cars but the latter appears to have now gone out of a production, with only 12 cars showing up in registrations data for September. The four-door sedan (Zest) and five-door hatchback (Bolt) were first seen at February 2014’s Delhi motor show.
Tata initially insisted that these models were not replacements for the aged and similarly sized Indigo and Indica. The Zest was launched in the home market during August 2014, with the Bolt following in January 2015. Their architecture is an evolution of the X1 platform.
Both models are powered by Tata’s Revotron 1.2T, a turbocharged 1.2-litre petrol engine, while speed-sensitive power steering was a claimed segment first for these cars. There is also a 90PS/200Nm diesel engine, and in conjunction with a five-speed automated manual gearbox which is marketed as ‘F-Tronic’.
The Zest is manufactured at two plants: Pimpri (Pune) and also at the Tata-Fiat factory in Ranjangaon, whereas the Bolt has been made only at Pimpri-Chinchwad in very small volume. Both models should be revamped very soon. Their replacements are due in 2024 but logically, TML should bring these forward.
Tata Motors revealed plans for a small hatchback as long ago as October 2010. After several rethinks, the production version of the 45X project is now said to be due in showrooms within the next few months. The Altroz model name was announced to the media in February ahead of a prototype’s world debut at the Geneva motor show. The company is said to have told suppliers/vendors that it is planning to build just 2,500 units a month of this model. A gold-painted pre-production car was spotted at a brochure shoot in Minsk only days ago.
This 3,988mm long vehicle, previously referred to by various codes, including X0, Dolphin, X451, or Pelican, will be built at the company’s Sanand plant and positioned above the Tiago. The platform was originally said to be coded ‘X302’, and a development of the Nano’s X3 architecture. It changed names to AMP (Advanced Modular Platform) but was also known as X4. Officially, Tata says this will be the first product for its ALFA (Agile Light Flexible Advanced) architecture.
Will Tata ever add a long-rumoured C segment sedan to its line-up? Such a model was hinted at more than a decade ago. That was when the Prima, a four-door sedan concept developed by Pininfarina, had its world premiere at the Geneva show in March 2009.
Supposedly now due for launch in 2020, this rival for the Maruti Ciaz would use the front- and all-wheel drive OMEGA ARC platform. Tata Motors has also called this its Advanced Modular Platform, and, X4. Even more confusingly, what Tata calls OMEGA (it used this name when announcing the Harrier in October 2018) is said to be known within JLR as D10. This is a low cost derivative of D8, which itself was evolved from Ford’s EUCD.
SUVs
The ‘Blackbird‘ project is a 4.2m long crossover SUV which will be Tata’s entry into the segment of the Indian market where the Hyundai Creta sells strongly. It is expected to use the firm’s ALFA architecture and be on sale in 2021.
Some are claiming that the Hornbill will be the production version of the H2X concept which was revealed at the 2019 Geneva motor show. However, as that model will be a sub-4m long SUV, and the H2X measured 4.2m, the concept is instead believed to have been a preview of the Blackbird.
X104 was the code for the Nexon, which is now TML’s second best seller. There should be two facelifts – one in 2020 and another in 2022/2023 – ahead of the arrival of a replacement in 2025. This small SUV is aimed at the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Ford EcoSport and other B-SUVs. The sales launch took place in September 2017.
A prototype which was based on the Hexa concept from the 2015 Geneva motor show had its world premiere at the New Delhi auto expo in February 2016. This six-seater crossover replaced the Aria. The concept was based on the same platform as the Tata Aria. The series production Hexa is powered by a 154PS and 400Nm 2.2-litre diesel engine. Sales in the Indian market commenced in January 2017.
Tata will supposedly stop building the Hexa by the end of this year as its engine will not be compliant with Indian emissions norms which will be enforced from January. The Buzzard (see below) is to be the effective replacement, it is believed.
Two other closely related SUVs – one with five seats, the other with seven – were approved by the Tata Motors board in August 2014 and developed undertaken with the assistance of JLR engineers. Both models use the Ford-based architecture of the former Land Rover Freelander/LR2. This is derived from Ford’s EUCD platform, evolved by JLR into its D8 architecture. Tata Motors calls its version of the platform ‘OMEGA ARC’, which is short for (Optimal Modular Efficient Global Advanced Architecture).
The first of the two is the 4,598mm long Harrier, the model name having been announced in July 2018. This had been previewed by the H5X, a concept which was revealed at the New Delhi Auto Expo in February 2018. Its development code is said to have been Q502.
Fiat’s 1,956cc Multijet II diesel has been renamed ‘Kryotec’ by Tata for use in the Harrier. Outputs are 103kW (140PS) and 350Nm. This engine was already in production at the Ranjangaon manufacturing complex and is also fitted to the Jeep Compass. The only transmission announced by TML at the time of the Harrier’s market release was a six-speed manual gearbox. Also, the vehicle has drum rear brakes. Tata Motors began manufacturing the Harrier at a plant in Pune in October 2018, but sales in the Indian market only started (officially) three months later.
The Q501, also known as the H7X project, will have a different model name, which could be Buzzard. Its world premiere was at the Geneva motor show six months ago where it was called the Buzzard Geneva Edition. The first deliveries for customers in the Indian market are set to take place towards year end. Tata also displayed the Harrier at the Geneva show but without explaining why, called it the Buzzard Sport Geneva Edition. The brand exists in a small number of European markets so perhaps these vehicles will be called Buzzard Sport and Buzzard in certain countries.
Electric
An electric version of the Tata’s best selling vehicle was a world debut at the the New Delhi Auto Expo in February 2018. The Tiago EV is believed to have been developed in collaboration with the UK based Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC). The car may go on general sale to the public in 2020.
In October 2017, Tata Motors won a tender to supply 10,000 vehicles to India’s federal government but there was no announcement of what the model(s) in question would be. Then, three months later, the Tigor Electric Vehicle was announced, as a batch of cars rolled out of the Sanand plant. For phase 1, Tata Motors was required to deliver 250 Tigor EVs. An additional 100 cars followed, with the drive systems developed and supplied by Electra EV.
The original car’s range was just 140km but this would be improved to between 180 and 250km “within 18 months”, Tata Motors chairman N Chandrasekaran told shareholders at the company’s 2019 AGM in July. A few days ago, the chairman kept his promise as a revised model was announced. It has a maximum claimed range of 213km thanks to a 21.5kWh battery pack.
Reports for many other manufacturers’ future models are grouped in the OEM product strategy summaries section of just-auto.com.
Future product program intelligence
More detail on past, current and forthcoming models can be found in PLDB, the future vehicles database which is part of QUBE. That includes those Tata models not named in this report.
This was the first feature in a series which examines future models for the passenger vehicle divisions of Tata Motors Limited. The second one will look at Jaguar, with Land Rover the topic of the final report.
