Tata Motors is on a product rampage. They have or are in the process of revamping all their existing products. But the bigger game is the new products they have planned for an onslaught in the market.
Among others, a car that is to be positioned in the entry level hatchback segment over Nano and under Indica is the ‘Kite’ (codename). It will be a car which will target Eon, Alto K10 and Datsun Go customers if we are to believe reports till now.
And in an update, Kite has been spotted for the first time in Pune near Tata’s factory by the folks at Cartoq.com. This sighting of the car gives us a good idea of what its shape is going to be like. Tata has decided not to continue with the Nano’s image (are they afraid of any sort of a jinx?) and has made it look similar to its Indicas, at least of what we can make out of these pics!
Against Cartoq’s report that Kite is smaller than Nano, this appears to be significantly big in comparison! In fact, this appears to be more of an Indica facelift rather than Kite! The windscreen looks huge and the short height with that helps to give it a larger image.
With the Bolt coming to plug in the gap of the higher end of the hatchback spectrum, the Kite will take care of the lesser segment. It may get the same 1.2L turbocharged Revotron petrol engine or a lesser derivative of the same. We are unsure about the diesel engine as the 1.3L Multijet motor from Fiat appears to be a lot bigger for the size of this hatchback.
Tata may plonk in the automated manual transmission (AMT) which they call as the F-Tronic. The F-Tronic is already coming on the Nano later this year.
Kite will be manufactured at Tata’s Sanand plant and the company expects to utilize the unused space left by low-selling Nano. Will the Kite soar in the sky or will it be lost in oblivion, only time will say. Tata is expected to launch Kite sometime next year.
Related: Nexon Launch in 24 Months; Will be Different from Other Compact SUVs
