Tata Motors is on a roll with the Tiago. Not only have they reached the 20,000 bookings milestone for the car but also managed to make the petrol version more popular than diesel. Now that’s something which is rather new for a brand like Tata where most of the sales have been of diesel powered vehicles. With the Zest and the Bolt powered by the new turbocharged Revotron petrol mill they had hoped to turn the tables but thing did not work out the way they had planned.
As per a report in Autocar India, 80 per cent of the total bookings for the Tiago are for the petrol version. The naturally aspirated 1.2 litre MPFi Revotron mill churns out 85 PS of maximum power at 6,000 rpm and 114 Nm of peak torque at 3,500 rpm. The fuel efficiency, though not class leading, is a respectable 23.84 kmpl.
So is it just because of the new lightweight engine? No, ever since the 2.0 litre and above ban on registration of diesel in the national capital (though Tiago’s diesel mill is not affected by the ban), the country as a whole has started shying away from diesel. In fact, the present government has also introduced a new cess on buying diesel cars.
Add to that the price gulf between the entry level petrol and similar trimmed diesel is Rs 74,000 in favour of the petrol one! This can be another major reason why most people are being pulled towards the new petrol engine.
After the Tiago, Tata has several new products lined up which include the Kite 5 compact sedan, Hexa crossover and Nexon compact SUV.