Tata Motors likely to advance Tata Nexon launch to late-August - Report

07/07/2017 - 10:18 Tata Nexon, Tata Motors Shrawan Raja

The production Tata Nexon was revealed at the Auto Expo in February 2016.

MoneyControl reports that Tata Motors is likely to advance the launch of the Tata Nexon by 1-2 months to ride on the positive customer sentiment following price cuts effected by GST. Tata may not hold back till Diwali (late October) to commence sales, and is looking for a date in late August or September.

Tata Nexon base variant front spotted testing — The Nexon is Tata's first sub-4m SUV. Moneycontrol pegs its starting price at around INR 6.5 lakh.

Speaking to the website, one Tata dealer says:

We are getting the Nexon in July itself for display and perhaps customer experience. The company won't wait till October to launch it commercially.

The Nexon would be Tata's fourth all-new model (following Tiago, Hexa and Tigor) in 18 months. Like the compact models, the Nexon is a sub-4m vehicle and compete with the Maruti Vitara Brezza, Ford EcoSport and the Mahindra TUV300. The compact SUV segment sees over 15,000 takers every month.

Moneycontrol speculates that given the precedent set by earlier launches, the Nexon will undercut rivals, to challenge the Vitara Brezza which clocks 10,000+ units a month. The starting price could be under INR 6.5 lakhs.

An earlier report said that the petrol engine (new 1.2L turbo unit) would not be ready at the launch of the Nexon, but Moneycontrol reports that both engine options (new 1.5L 'Revotorq' diesel) will come in multiple variants. A six-speed manual transmission would be default, but Tata Motors could plant the automated manual transmission (AMT) in the Nexon later.