Tata Motors is working on sub-2 litre (2,000cc) diesel engines for its portfolio of utility vehicles (UVs), a move that will enable it to sell vehicles in the National Capital Region (NCR).
The company is also working on hybridisation and electrification of its vehicle portfolio, even as it launched a hatchback Tiago at prices starting at ₹3.20 lakh.
“We should understand the spirit behind the Supreme Court’s decision, which is to reduce emissions and we have to align to that spirit. We are modifying our existing engines,” Girish Wagh, Senior Vice-President (Programme Planning & Project Management), Tata Motors, told
The company, which already has a portfolio of vehicles with 2.2-litre engines, would look at downsizing the engine capacity.
Tata Motors’ Storme and Aria, which are now shipped with 2.2-litre Varicor engines, are the possible candidates for downsizing. Under its advanced engineering domain, the company is also “specifically” looking at hybridisation and electrification of vehicles, but there is no timeline at this point.
In December 2015, the Supreme Court banned sales of vehicles with diesel engines of more than 2,000cc till March 31 over rising pollution levels in the Capital. This was further extended by a month.
On Wednesday, Tata Motors launched a mid-sized hatchback Tiago, positioning it against Hyundai’s i10 and Maruti Suzuki’s Celerio. The hatchback has been priced at ₹3.20 lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi) for the Revotron 1.2 litre (petrol) variant and ₹3.94 lakh for the Revotorq 1.05 litre (diesel).
Tiago, which was named through a cloud-sourcing contest, is available for sale across Tata Motors’ 597 outlets from today.
“This is a game-changer as it is a great product and comes with a competitive pricing and has been built to the highest global quality standards. We do believe that the Tiago is pull product, with customers pulling the cars out of our dealerships,” said Tata Motors Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Guenter Butschek.
The petrol variant has a fuel efficiency of 23.84 km per litre, while that on diesel is 27.28 km per litre (ARAI certified), under test conditions. The vehicle is available in five variants and six colour options.
On Wednesday, the shares in Tata Motors closed 1.81 per cent higher at ₹377.20 on the BSE.