Tata Motors Working on a New Premium Small Car

Tata Motors that has recently launched the Vista D90 and revealed the Vista based crossover, Vista D90 Xtreme SUV Concept has now been reportedly working on a new premium small hatchback to compete against the closest competitors including Maruti, Hyundai and others. The information has been given by several people with knowledge of the development.

Codenamed as 'XO' is likely to be built on the refurbished Indica platform and is expected to be the company's biggest launches when it arrives in 2015. A person close to the development said that the company can bring in a new product quickly at a competitive price by using the existing Indica Platform.

"A common man does not see the platform; he or she is attracted by the style, design and features. The new X0 intends to deliver just that with almost 75% change in body in white (body panels)," the person said. The final product specification including the design, cost and time will possibly be done on March 31 and then send to vendors to start working on the project.

The small car is likely to sport a 1.05-litre three-cylinder diesel engine and a 1.2-litre turbo petrol mill. And to offer other powerful options, Tata Motors may include other higher capacity engines as well. The small car has been said to be the part of Tata Motors' larger portfolio of new launches to be finalised in the next couple of months. Tata Motors will spend Rs 4,000-5,000 crore on the new products over the next three to five years in the Passenger vehicle business, another person close to the project informed.

Other people close to the development told that a compact sedan and compact SUV are also under discussion. "These products too should hit the market in the next few years, but the exact specification in terms of which platform the sedan and SUV will come on is still being discussed as Tata Motors has multiple compact car platforms (X0 and X1) on which it could build these products," said one of the five people cited above.

Source: ET