The Tata Pelican small car will be positioned above the Nano rivalling the Maruti Alto and will employ a 1.0-litre petrol and 0.8-litre diesel engine under the hood.
While Tata Motors has been extensively working on its new range of products including the Kite hatchback and compact sedan followed by the Nexon compact SUV, a recent report suggests that the Indian automaker has silently commenced working on an all-new small car that will sit above the entry-level Nano in the company’s lineup. Codenamed ‘Pelican’, the new small car is being developed on a revised Nano platform ‘X302’ and will rival the Maruti Alto in the segment.
The Tata Pelican will draw power from a 1.0-litre petrol engine, while diesel duty will be performed by the 0.8-litre engine that was originally developed for the Nano but could not make it to production. The Pelican will be sold under an all-new brand name and will be the cheapest diesel car in India, while also being exported to several other markets. The company is eyeing monthly sales of around 2500 units with the new hatch against the 20,000+ units of the Alto and over 6000 units of the Hyundai Eon in the same space, given its ‘making a comeback’ status in the market.
The Pelican will be produced at Tata’s Sanand facility alongside the Nano as well as the upcoming Kite twins. The plant with a capacity of 2,50,000 units a year is heavily under-utilised at the moment and produces only around 1300 units of the Nano a month. The Tata Pelican small car will help increase capacity utilisation, while also encouraging faster recovery of the investment on the plant. In the mean time, Tata has been working on an AMT equipped Nano to increase sales and the same will hit showrooms later this year.
Source – Business Standard
