Tata Motors’ Sanand plant will be rolling out the first ever non-Nano car, the Kite. The new hatchback will be slotted below the Bolt.
Tata Motors built their plant in Sanand with a lot of optimism. The ambitious Nano was first going to be produced at their plant in Singur, West Bengal but a lot of difficulties were faced and then finally Narendra Modi lent out a helping hand and helped Tata Motors develop a new plant at Sanand, Gujarat. The plant was built with the sole purpose of manufacturing the Nano since the company was expecting the car to sell at least 20,000 units every month. The Nano, however, failed to sell in numbers even half of what the company expected.
The Indian automaker is now developing a new hatchback that has been codenamed Kite. The Kite will roll out in December and it will be the first non-Nano car to be manufactured at the Sanand plant. The factory has a very huge capacity which the Nano failed to exploit properly. Thanks to the Kite, Tata Motors will now be able to use the plant and its facilities at full potential. The company will initially produce 2000-2500 units a month and later on this capacity will be increased. A lot depends on how the market receives this car.
The Tata Kite is based on the XO platform and it will come powered by a 1.2-litre petrol engine. The Kite will be priced quite competitively and it will be competing with the likes of the Maruti Wagon R, Chevrolet Beat, Hyundai i10, Nissan Micra, etc. The company priced the Bolt a bit too optimistically and hence it turned out to be a low seller despite being quite good overall so this time we think that Tata won’t make the same mistake and the Kite will be priced reasonably. The Kite fills in the shoes of the Indica but the latter won’t be discontinued.
