Tata’s Hyundai Creta challenger: What it’ll look like

Tata Motors has been pushing hard for market dominance of lately. The current company policy seems to about launching a vehicle in every segment, price it so that it undercuts most of the direct rivals along with offering an attractive design and feature-rich interiors. This seems like the perfect recipe to bring out a successful product and so far, it has been working in the company’s favour. It was recently revealed that Tata is also developing a compact SUV that will sit between the Nexon and the Harrier in the market. Codenamed as the Blackbird, the SUV will be a direct rival to the Hyundai Creta. Now render artist Saneet Fulsunder, who goes by the name of saneetf on Instagram, has created a render which shows how the compact SUV could look like in the future.

The Tata Blackbird will be made on the lines of Tata’s current IMPACT 2.0 design philosophy, the most recent example of which is the Harrier SUV. Going by this render by Saneet, the exterior design of the Blackbird is quite bold and acts as a bridge between the Nexon and the Harrier. The placement of headlamps is similar as in the Harrier, albeit in a different shape. Compared to the Harrier, this render of Blackbird shows the upcoming SUV designed with more straight lines and square stance rather than outright curviness. The blacked out roof with roof rails further add to its character

The side profile again contains more straight lines than curves but looks quite good. The multispoke alloy wheels look cool but are unlikely to be featured in the production version of the car. Black side cladding runs across the bottom of the car to give it a rugged feel. The rear features sleek LED tail lights that look very good and will look even better at night. A roof spoiler has been added to the SUV while the bottom portion is taken by black body cladding. It is expected to have an approximate length of 4.2 meters, which is in the same ballpark as the Hyundai Creta.

The Blackbird compact SUV will be the first product built on Tata’s Alfa platform to be more than four metres in length, the other being the Altroz premium hatchback. As of now, there are no details on the engine and transmission that will work on this new SUV. However, there is a good probability that Tata will employ a more powerful version of the Nexon’s 1.2-litre turbo-petrol engine on the Blackbird. It could churn out around 120 Bhp of power or even more. The 1.5 litre diesel engine on the Nexon could be used as the diesel powertrain on the car, albeit again in a higher state of tune. It would come paired to both manual and automatic transmission options, as is the norm with SUV nowadays.

Tata had an option of either creating a sedan or an SUV in the Rs. 8-10 lakh price mark but the manufacturer decided to go for the latter owing to the high demand of SUVs in India. Now only Tata, but a lot of other auto manufacturers have turned their attention towards SUVs in the wake of increased demand of this segment. The Tata Blackbird is expected to be launched by 2021. It will rival the likes of the new Hyundai Creta, new Renault Duster and the Nissan Kicks at the time of its launch.