Tata Bolt, Zest – Tata Motors launched the Bolt and Zest in 2014 to replace the Indica Vista and Indigo CS respectively. These cars offered a huge improvement over older Tata cars and were part of Tata’s Horizonext programme. Sales never really picked up because pricing seemed to be on the higher side plus people could still find the design resembling the older cars. Commercial buyers picked up a fair number of these cars but sales went south and since Tata now has the Tiago and Tigor, these cars have been discontinued.
Nissan Micra, Sunny, Terrano – Nissan has discontinued three cars. All these cars got the same 1.5 dCi diesel engine in different states of tune. The Micra got a 1.2-litre petrol engine while the Sunny and Terrano got a 1.5-litre petrol engine. This engine is offered on the BS6 Duster but Nissan won’t be launching BS6 versions of these vehicles. However, the Kicks is expected to get the same BS6 update as the Duster soon.
These were some of the most popular cars that have been discontinued owing to the new norms. However, there are still some more like the Honda Accord Hybrid and the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport & Outlander which have been phased out from the Indian market. The Accord Hybrid was launched a couple of years back and at almost Rs. 50 lakhs (on-road) it found close to no takers. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi had barely any dealerships in India and it was a bit surprising that they asked the government to postpone the BS6 deadline. It remains to be seen whether the Datsun portfolio gets updated to BS6 norms or not.
