Tata Motors is known as a diesel car company or so it has been portrayed by the automaker. Remember how the first Indica revolutionised the hatchback market? Besides having acres of space for a hatchback, the first generation Indica was easy to run on the pocket as it was the first diesel hatchback in our country. The company continued to develop its diesel engines until it entered a JV with Fiat, leading to them using the state of the art Multijet engine in its cars, dubbed as the Quadrajet motor. Demand for diesel cars is declining, Fiat doesn’t have good petrol engines in India (except the T-Jet) and soon petrol engines will see a bounce back, time for Tata Motors to do something.
Tata Motors has now unveiled a new 1.2-litre, 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine. This over-square motor is called the Revotron engine, producing 85 PS of power at 5000 RPM and 140 Nm of torque between 1750-3000 RPM. It uses a low friction crank case, drive by wire technology, 8 hole injectors, water-cooled turbocharger and offers multiple drive modes. The mill is BS4 and OBD II compliant and will meet future emission norms. The gearbox is used from existing engines. The company claims this motor has the best in class NVH and Tata Motors believes it has a rich legacy of making powertrains from its state of the art R&D centre. This turbo petrol engine is indeed a big step for Tata Motors as the company can now offer competent petrol cars.
The Tata Revotron engine uses a low inertia turbocharger for quicker spooling. The piston is asymmetric and the block is made of cast iron. It uses a silent steel oil pan and is CNG capable, the motor is made for Indian conditions. The 1.2-litre motor has a fuel injection pressure of 90 bar with 1.9 PSI boost and the engine weighs in at 120 kgs. It uses an alloy head and a pneumatic waste gate. Tata Motors has applied for 20 patents for this turbocharged engine which will power the upcoming Falcon 4 (new Vista) and Falcon 5 (sub 4-metre Manza). The company will launch the Vista Tech tomorrow which is currently offered in diesel form only, we expect the turbocharged motor to make its way in the Vista Tech as well.
Tata Motors will be bringing in more turbocharged petrol engines in the near future which are already under development. This includes a 3-cylinder version of the 1.2-litre engine (likely to be a 900cc) and a 1.5-litre mill with DOHC and VGT is also on the cards, it is expected to output 110 BHP. Building a new engine from scratch isn’t easy and that’s why Tata Motors has worked in conjunction with AVL, Bosch, Mahle, Honeywell and INA. Not to forget, some help has been solicited from Jaguar Land Rover as well.
The world is moving towards turbocharged power. While all diesel cars use a turbo, soon all petrol cars will be force fed. Volkswagen is one company which has made if official, it will soon not have a single naturally aspirated petrol engine in its lineup. Last year we saw the move towards turbocharged petrol engines progressing further in India with Volkswagen’s 1.2-litre TSI and Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost engines make their debut. Fiat already has the 1.4-litre T-Jet engine powering the Linea while globally Honda is plonking in turbochargers in its VTEC engines. Even Formula 1 has gone turbo!
