Tata HBX was one of the most hyped vehicles at the Auto Expo 2020. It is also known as the Tata Hornbill which could be the name once it hits the Indian market. The new micro-SUV will be competing against the Maruti Suzuki S-Presso and it was showcased at the Auto Expo 2020. It was able to gather a lot of attention and interest around it. The Hornbill HBX was recently spotted on test on the Indian roads due to which new spy shots have surfaced on the internet.
The spy shots were clicked by Rahul Autospy and were uploaded on his Instagram page. The new spy shots give us a good idea about how the production version of the new micro-SUV might look. Tata already shared that the production version of the HBX will be 80 percent close to the HBX Concept. This is a good thing because it was the design of the concept that people loved at the Auto Expo 2020.
From the spy shots, we can see that the production version does resemble the HBX Concept a lot. It still gets the spit headlamp design that we have seen on the Tata Harrier. So, the LED Daytime Running Lamp is placed above while the main headlamp unit sits below in the bumper. The LED Daytime Running Lamp is connected by the grille, which houses the Tata logo, and it seems that it has been finished in piano-black.
The hatchback is running on steel wheels which means that this might be a lower-end variant. So, there are chances that instead of the LED Daytime Running Light, Tata is using that space for the turn indicators. We can see the tall and flat bonnet just like Tata has on the Nexon that was recently updated. The high driving position and tall-boy design should help in increasing the overall visibility throughout the cabin. There are no immediate door handles on the rear doors. So, there are high chances that the rear door handles are mounted on the C-pillar just like we have seen on the Maruti Suzuki Swift and the Tata Altroz.
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In the second spy shot, we can see the rear of the Hornbill. Tata has used a rakish rear glass with a high mounted stop lamp and the Hornbill uses conventional circular tail lamps. We can also see that Tata will be offering a rear windscreen wiper and washer. There are also dual-tone alloy wheels that are newly designed and are different from what we have seen on the HBX Concept at the Auto Expo 2020. The interior gets a floating touchscreen infotainment system that comes with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Tata also might offer the sound system sourced from Harman that we have seen on other Tata vehicles such as Tiago, Tigor, Nexon and the 2020 Harrier. Hornbill will also be using semi-digital instrument cluster, flat-bottom steering wheel, multi-function steering wheel and squared AC vents.
Tata HBX will be powered by a 1.2-litre Revotron petrol engine that we have seen on the Tiago and Tigor. The engine produces 84 PS of max power and 114 Nm of peak torque. It will be mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox or a 5-speed AMT. Tata HBX will be competing against the Maruti Suzuki S-Presso, Mahindra KUV100 NXT and the upcoming Hyundai AX1 micro-SUV. The HBX will be launched sometime in 2021 and will be priced around Rs. 4 lakhs ex-showroom
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