The Indian automaker will be launching a new hatchback and sedan that will be aimed at the price-conscious market. The test mule of the hatchback met with an accident on a national highway.
Tata Motors will be launching two new products next year. The vehicle will spawn hatchback and compact sedan variants and has been codenamed Kite. The hatchback based on the Kite will mostly be called Glade while its sedan counterpart is likely to be called Boom. The manufacturer is carrying out various extensive road tests of both the vehicles across the country and we have seen numerous pictures of the sedan in action, pictures of the Glade are also found in abundance. The latest dope is that two test mules of the Glade hatchback met with an accident while undergoing their routine testing process.
The accident occurred on the Bangalore-Pune highway when it was pretty dark. The patch of road where the accident happened is undergoing some construction work so there were a lot of diversions. The vehicles were travelling at a speed of 60-80 km/hr and while taking a diversion, a truck appeared from the opposite direction and banged head-on in to one of the test mules. The vehicle got damaged and the front right wheel came off due to the bent axle. The other test mule braked in time and saved itself. Occupants of both the cars remain unhurt. The truck driver managed to flee from the spot.
The new Tata Glade and Boom will be offered with both petrol and diesel engine options. The petrol motor will be a 1.2-litre unit producing around 75 HP of power while the oil-burner will be a 1.05-litre mill churning out approximately 64 HP of power. The vehicles will be launched later this fiscal year and will be slotted below the Bolt and Zest respectively. Tata Motors didn’t get much success with the Bolt and Zest so it will interesting to see how they price the newer vehicles. Too many vehicles in the same price bracket might also result in cannibalisation of their own products. The Glade will compete with the like of the Maruti Celerio, Wagon R and Hyundai i10.
Source – RushLane.com
