Tata Motors is all set for a slew of launches. After having launched the Tigor and Hexa earlier in the year, they will be launching the Nexon compact SUV next month. The company has also confirmed that they will be introducing two more SUVs, one to take on the Creta and one to take on the recently launched Jeep Compass.
While the one taking on the Creta will be a 5-seater, the one taking on the Compass will be a 7-seater model. The company wants to target a 13 lakh price tag for the Creta competitor while the Compass competitor will be roughly 2 lakhs more. These are the Q501 and Q502 SUVs that we have been talking about over the past year.
Both the vehicles will be based on the L550 platform from Land Rover. This will be the first time that Tata will use the JLR brand’s platform for their own vehicle. While the basic structure, the floor and a few suspension components will be shared, the company has confirmed that Tata products will have a different look and will not resemble their Land Rover counterpart.
The company has already begun testing the duo and we carried stories of the company testing the vehicle using the Land Rover Discovery Sport body shells, in a way to camouflage their vehicles.
The company is expected to use the 2.0 liter engine from the FCA group in this vehicle. This is the same engine that you see on the Compass currently and it produces 170 Bhp and 350 Nm. The company may decide to have a different state of tune for the smaller vehicle. As Tata has been offering both 2-wheel and all-wheel drive variants in all their SUVs, we expect this to be no different.
While the test vehicles that were spotted had a manual gearbox and interiors similar to what is on offer in the Land Rovers, we are not sure what interiors the production ready model will be getting.
The launch will take place in the next fiscal year (2018-2019). The SUV segment is heating up with the launch of the Kaptur around the corner, the Nissan Kicks and now these two SUVs from Tata Motors.
Source: Autocar India