 "Tata Motors has built up an inventory of the Tiago over the past two months ?to ensure a smooth roll out of the car (pic: Yasin D)")
Tata Motors, country's biggest auto maker, is pulling out all stops for upcoming small car Tiago, which is scheduled to be launched on Wednesday.
In a first, the Mumbai-based company has put the hatchback Tiago (earlier named Zica) through a gruelling 50,000 km, 18-day, non-stop high speed endurance drive on a DRDO-controlled test track in Ahmednagar.
Tim Leverton, President & Head, Advanced and Product Engineering, Tata Motors, said, "This drive was done to showcase improvement in our product development process most importantly the Tiago. And we have done this even before we start to sell the cars to consumers. This was the first of its kind drive by Tata Motors and the longest by any manufacturer in India."
Competing against the likes of Hyundai i10 and Maruti Celerio, the Tiago will be seen with two new engines a 1.2 Litre Revotron petrol and a 1.05 litre Revotroq diesel. The Tiago will bridge the gap between the Nano and the Bolt even as the aging Indica has been actively pushed for commercial buyers.
Apart from the petrol and diesel variants of the Tiago petrol versions of the compact sedan Zest and premium hatchback Bolt were also made to do the drive. Leverton added that though none of the cars experienced any technical problems or a breakdown there have been several learnings from the drive which will be useful for future product development.
“We got a lot out of it. This drive will become the benchmark for future products as they will also go through such drives”, added Leverton.
Tata Motors began the drive on March 14, 2016 with the cars randomly picked from its plant and put them to test to prove their capability. The Bolt clocked Indian 3161km at an average speed of 131.7km/h in the first 24 hours on the 4.2km circuit.
Apart from short pit stops every 2 hours for driver changes, fuel fill-ups, routine checks, and cleaning of the windshield/ headlamps, the 4 cars racked up the kilometers at a pace of 130 -140 kmph.
Besides the endurance test, another four cars of the same description, also ran at a constant pace of 45-55km/h until each ran out of fuel to establish a radical fuel economy figure. The Zest and Bolt clocked mileage of 29.89 kmpl and 28.32 kmpl respectively. Tata Motors will announce the Tiago fuel economy test results at the car’s launch event.
