Tata Motors, the country's largest auto maker by revenue, seems all set to introduce the CNG variant of Indigo eCS in the Indian auto market somewhere in November 2013. Reportedly, the company showcased this model at Horizonext event, which was organised in June this year. At Horizonext, Tata Motors showcased a number of models like Nano emax, Indica emax and Tata Indigo eCS emax, which all were CNG variants of its existing models. Earlier in October, the company launched Nano emax, which is well accepted by the price sensitive Indian buyers.
Sources close to the development process stated that the bookings for Indigo eCS emax will commence in few days and the model will be delivered at the company's showrooms in early November. Coming to the technical specifications of the upcoming model, the Indigo eCS will come equipped with a 1.2-litre petrol engine, which will have the potential to churn out a maximum power of 65 bhp with 100 Nm of peak torque. In CNG version, the outputs of power and torque are expected to stand at 56 bhp and 90 Nm, respectively.
Interestingly, driver can easily switch between petrol and CNG fuel options, using a ergonomically placed single-press button. When one switches from petrol to CNG, the instrument cluster automatically gets a green colour, which shows that the driver is running on an environment friendly fuel source. As claimed by the company officials, Tata Indigo eCS emax will return a fuel efficiency of 24km/kg. However, with the addition of a CNG kit, individuals will have to compromise on the boot space.
Along with a fuel tank capacity of 42 litre, the Tata Indigo eCS emax will feature a CNG tank of 10 kg. It must be noted that CNG is considered to be one of the most popular fuels options used widely. CNG is greener and cheap, which makes it good for both environment and pocket. Industry experts are of a view that it happens to be a good move by Tata Motors to introduce a new emax line up, featuring CNG variants of its iconic models. After recently introducing Nano emax in the Indian auto market, the auto maker is now coming up with another model, which is expected to pull in some decent volumes in sedan segment during the ongoing festive season.
