Tata Motors, which plans to launch the Zest sedan and the Bolt hatchback, both powered by the new family of Revotron engines, ahead of the festival season, hopes the new models to help it turn around sales this fiscal.

“The passenger car market is looking up in the last couple of months. With the extension of tax rebates and improvement in business sentiment, the automotive segment is poised to do well,” said Ashesh Dhar, National Sales Head, South and East, Passenger Vehicles.

Speaking at an event organised here to showcase its new Revotron engines, he said the automaker will play a bigger role in the petrol-powered car segment with the launch of Zest and Bolt.

Fuel-efficient engines The new petrol engines have been developed indigenously by Tata Motors research and development team in collaboration with strategic partners such as AVL from Austria, Germany’s Bosch and US-based Honeywell. Tested extensively in England and South Korea, these multi-point engines are fuel-efficient.

Tata Motors sees growing demand for petrol-powered engines with the price difference between petrol and diesel gradually coming down in India. The company also plans to export these engines.

At present, diesel-powered vehicles account for Tata Motors’ 50 per cent passenger car sales. “The company had outlined its long-term strategy, wherein it plans to introduce at least two new models every year till 2020, expanding the range of cars and tapping new segments,” Dhar said. It has launched Revotron Labs in 15 cities in busy locations such as malls to showcase the new family of engines.

In June, Tata Motors saw a 33 per cent drop in sales to 7,911 passenger vehicles against 11,804 units in the year-ago period.

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