The Tata Kite based compact sedan will be replacing the Indigo eCS in Tata Motors’ lineup and will be positioned as a value for money offering below the Zest compact sedan.
While the Kite hatchback is scheduled to be Tata’s big launch for 2015 in the B-segment space replacing the legendary Indica, the company has commenced work on another mass market model the Kite compact sedan that was caught testing near the company’s facility in Pimpri, Maharashtra. A replacement to the long-in-the-tooth Indigo eCS, the new Kite compact sedan will be the company’s new value for money offering positioned below the Zest with the launch expected by the end of 2015 or early 2016.
Based on the modified Indica platform, the new Kite compact sedan shares its design traits with the hatchback version as seen on the test mule, while the rear gets a rather notchback styling. Being tucked under the 4-metre mark, the new compact sedan will be a tad bit smaller than the Zest in terms of length, but will certainly make the most of the excise duty cut with a competitive pricing. Compared to the Indigo eCS, the new car is expected to offer improved ride quality, better interiors and certainly more features. It is also reported that the modified platform gets improvements in the form of reduced NVH levels and lower weight that will contribute to higher fuel efficiency.
In terms of powertrain, the Kite models are more likely to get the new 1.2-litre petrol motor, while a new 1.05-litre 3-cylinder diesel engine producing around 64 BHP of power is also said to be on offer. Keeping up with the competition, Tata Motors will surely offer the new AMT unit paired to both the petrol and diesel engines apart from the 5-speed manual transmission.
While the Zest was kitted up with several segment first-features, expect the Tata Kite compact sedan to miss out on quite a few in favour of competitive prices. The compact sedan will also find more takers in the tier II and tier III cities, the Indigo eCS’ main market and can also charm the taxi operators with impressive rear seat comfort on offer. Creating a sub-segment of sorts in the compact sedan space, the new Kite based compact sedan is expected to undercut the competition by a hefty margin and could be priced below Rs. 4 lakhs (ex-showroom).
Source – CarToq