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Expanding its portfolio in the premium hatchback segment, Tata Motors, the country’s fourth largest passenger vehicle maker, launched Vista VX Tech, a sporty vehicle loaded with new technological features like GPS navigation system and steering wheel-mounted controls, in the domestic market on Tuesday.
Announcing the launch in Hyderabad, which Tata Motors claims to be its largest Vista-selling market in India, company national sales head (south and east – passenger vehicles business unit) Ashesh Dhar told mediapersons that the new vehicle came in two diesel engine options with ‘VX Tech’ being a limited edition.
The new Vista range starts at Rs 4.96 lakh (ex-showroom Hyderabad) for Vista LS and goes up to Rs 6.11 lakh for the Vista VX Tech.
Vista’s journey started in 2008. Since then, it has rolled out five variants in the over 100,000-unit per month premium high segment in India, including Vista DriveTech4 in 2010, Vista D90 in 2013 and Vista VX Tech now.
Also launching the new Nano Twist, which comes with an electric power assisted steering system and lowest turning circle radius of four metre, in the Hyderabad market, Dhar said Nano sales were on the lower side last year as it was a “model-change year”.
Nano sales plummeted to 4,000 units in October-December 2013, as against peak sales of over 27,000 units during January-March 2012. “We definitely expect the new launches to rev up our sales,” he added.
Stating that with the gap between petrol and diesel prices narrowing with the rise in the latter’s rates, he said the auto industry was seeing a shift from diesel to petrol-driven passenger vehicles.
About 15 per cent of car sales of Tata Motors, which currently enjoys an eight per cent share of the four-wheeler passenger vehicle market in India, are petrol versions.
