Tata Motors launched the Zest on 12th August at a very competitive starting price of Rs. 4.64 lakhs. The Zest shows how Tata has improved its quality by leaps and bounds. The company has clearly worked very hard to ensure that the new vehicle is successful in satisfying customers and it lives up to their expectations. The Zest, which competes with the Maruti DZire, Hyundai Xcent and Honda Amaze undercuts all its rivals on the pricing front while it offers a huge array of features. The compact sedan is also the first-in-class vehicle to get a turbocharged petrol engine and a diesel engine mated to an AMT gearbox.
While people are busy test driving the new Zest, Tata Motors is gearing up to launch the Bolt hatchback. The Bolt will be fighting it out with the Maruti Suzuki Swift, Hyundai Grand i10 and the Honda Brio. Since the Zest was launched at such an aggressive price, we can expect Tata Motors to follow the same strategy with the Bolt too. Maruti has kept a price difference of Rs. 46,000/- between the Swift and DZire while Hyundai has kept a difference of Rs. 34,000 between the Grand i10 and the Xcent. Honda has priced the Brio and Amaze apart by Rs. 90,000 (all prices are ex-showroom, Mumbai for the base models).
Looking at this logic, we think Tata Motors will also keep a considerable amount of price difference between the Bolt and Zest. A starting price of Rs. 3.99 lakhs would sound too tempting while something like Rs. 4.15 lakhs (ex-showroom) may be realistic. The Bolt too will come with a lot of features as well as the same petrol and diesel (lower state of tune) engines found on the Zest. With Tata Motors going all out to gain market share by launching such good products, it will be very interesting to see the company also improves on other fronts such as sales and after sales service.
