Tata Motors is working on an all-new compact car, which is expected to come as replacement for the Indica. Codenamed as kite, the small car has been spotted a couple of times on Indian roads. It will be positioned between the Bolt hatchback and the Nano. Interestingly, the company is also contemplating a small sedan based on the Kite hatchback. Just like the Falcon project, the new compact sedan and hatch gets “Kite” as a project name. It will be an affordable sedan, and will join the Zest sub-4 metre sedan. Likely to go on sale by the end of 2015, the compact sedan is expected to be priced below Rs. 4 lakh.
The new Kite compact sedan would feature Tata Motor’s new and aggressive design language, which we have already seen on the new Bolt and Zest. It will be launched in both petrol and diesel guise. The diesel version is likely to be powered by a 1.05-litre turbocharged unit producing 67bhp of power. This engine was first unveiled at the 2012 Delhi Motor Show. The petrol version is expected to be the 1.2-litre turbocharged unit from Revotron family.
Going by the high demand for AMT equipped cars, we believe that the new Kite siblings would be offered in both manual and automated manual transmissions version. With low pricing, the compact sedan is expected to compete against the likes of B-segment hatchbacks.
