The Bolt is Tata Motors’ new product after a gap of five years in the Indian market and that is the reason why the manufacturer is making every effort possible to get rid of any issues on the Bolt before they officially launch the product. The Tata Bolt was caught on test by our eagle eyed reader Subhankar Dey at Nippani, Karnataka and was wearing heavy camouflage. The car will be launched in the second half of this year in India and will be subsequently launched in other markets as well.
Tata Motors had showcased the Bolt at the 2014 Auto Expo last month and even though the car on test was wearing camouflage, we do not expect to see any radical changes in the design of the hatchback. The test car featured a bright orange paintjob underneath and two different alloy wheel designs. The front design was from the new Bolt showcased, while the rear was from the old Vista. Not that it makes a difference, considering it’s a test car.
The Bolt will feature the all-new 1.2-litre Revotron petrol engine producing 85 PS and 140 Nm, while the 1.3-litre Multijet diesel (Quadrajet in Tata speak) sourced from Fiat continues to do duty with 75 BHP and 190 Nm on tap. The hatchback features an EPAC steering system, ABS with cornering stability function, projector headlamps and daytime running lights. The Bolt also gets a new Harman Infotainment system with MapmyIndia navigation and a 5-inch touchscreen unit. Bluetooth telephony with voice recognition and text to speech with phone enabled navigation is also part of the features list.
In terms of design, the front is a recognizable Tata, but is rather more evolutionary and sporty. The Bolt has comes ages ahead of the Indica Vista with the overall quality as well as fit and finish. Several global cars were benchmarked, along with inputs from F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan went into developing the Bolt. The car will sit above the Vista Tech in the Tata car lineup and will compete with the Maruti Suzuki Swift, Hyundai Grand i10 and the Volkswagen Polo.
