Tata Motors to launch Hyundai Creta rival in the Indian market

Tata is going big the SUVs in the Indian market. Tata launched the all-new sub-4m compact SUV, the Nexon in 2017 and it has already secured the second spot on the sales chart. Earlier, this year Tata Motors launched the all-new Tata Harrier in the Indian market earlier this year at a surprising price. Tata is also working on its next SUV, which is internally code-named as Tata H7X. Well, that will not be the end of it. There is a lot of opportunity in the SUV segment in the Indian market. To bridge the gap between the Tata Nexon, there will be an all-new SUV from the brand, which is internally known as the Blackbird. It is expected to be launched in 2021.

The top-end version of the Tata Nexon is priced at Rs. 10.8 lakhs while the base variant of the Tata Hexa is priced at Rs. 12.69 lakh. There is a void of about Rs. 2 lakh, that will be bridged by the all-new SUV. It may overlap with the price of the top-end Nexon and the Base version of the Harrier, but it will arm Tata to take on the Hyundai Creta SUV directly. The Hyundai Creta is the best-selling model in the segment, and there are no real competitors of the Creta in the Indian market. The Blackbird will be targeting the customers who want a fully loaded vehicle that is bigger than the Nexon but is affordable than the Harrier.

Tata has now adopted the new IMPACT Design 2.0, which can also be seen on the Harrier. Our in-house render artist Vipin Vithoopan created a rendered image of the Tata Sierra with the latest design language of Tata. The all-new SUV might look similar to this rendered image, but the production version will be offered with a four-door set-up.

Tata was expected to launch an all-new sedan, which will be based on the upcoming Altroz premium hatchback. The car would have been a competitor to the likes of Honda City and Maruti Suzuki Ciaz. However, the sedan has now been dropped to favour the all-new SUV, which is not a surprising decision at all. Especially when the SUV segment is booming.

The all-new SUV will get the Tata’s Alpha platform that will underpin the upcoming Altroz too. The platform will be stretched to accommodate the body of the all-new Blackbird. It should be noted that the Tata Nexon measures below 4m in length while the Tata Harrier is 4.5m long. The all-new SUV will sit right in between the length of these two vehicles.

Earlier, an all-new SUV on the Harrier’s OMEGA platform was planned, but it would have been too expensive in the segment, and it faced a few technical difficulties also. That’s why a stretched version of the Alpha platform will now form the base of the all-new SUV. It will be a first-ever SUV to be based on the all-new platform.

The all-new SUV is expected to get power from the 1.2-litre turbocharged engine that is supposed to churn around a maximum of 120 Bhp and a more powerful version of the 1.5-litre diesel engine. Both the engines will get an automatic transmission as an option, but there will not be a 4WD system in place.

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