TATA Safari and Indica Debut at Motorshow
TATA – to most Malaysians, that’s the name of a manufacturer of buses and lorries. But while TATA, which is the largest conglomerate in India, has been making heavy commercial vehicles for decades, it is actually a full-range automaker with cars and 4WDs. Though sales of its products in India are substantial, the company is looking more towards exports in coming years and has begun to offer other types of vehicles in Malaysia through its distributor/importer Scott & English (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, (part of the DRB-HICOM Group).
The first of these models was the Telcoline 4×4 Pickup which was launched a couple of months ago. Assembled at the MTB plant in Pekan, Pahang, the Telcoline is an affordable vehicle and the timing for its introduction is just right as demand for pick-ups is soaring. In fact, Scott & English now experiences the unusual situation of having customers waiting for its vehicles.
Next year, the company will also introduce the Safari, a 4WD sport-utility vehicle (SUV) with styling that reminds one of the Land Rover Discovery. To be assembled locally and sold at around RM120,000, the Safari has a 4-cylinder 1948 cc turbodiesel engine said to be developed by TATA itself. The transmission is a manual 5-speeder with dual ranges so it is more of a ‘serious 4WD’ than a competitor for the new generation of lightweight 4WDs like the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V. Its dimensions are also comparable to the bigger 4WDs – an overall length of 4650 mm on a wheelbase of 2650 mm.
The suspension has double wishbones in front and coil springs at the rear with 5-link location so it should ride fairly comfortably. There’s also power-assisted steering and the brakes are a disc/drum combination. Standard wheels are 15-inch steel wheels with 235/75×15 tyres.
A look inside revealed that the Safari is certainly a well-equipped vehicle with high-quality trim. It is spacious with quite a lot of headroom. At the rear, like the 1st generation Discovery, there are extra seats that fold into the side panels.
The other attention-getter was the TATA Indica, a small passenger hatchback which is promoted as an “all-Indian” car. Its styling was suggested by IDEA, a design house in Italy, and from some angles, it has the looks of a Peugeot. The model on display had a 1.4-litre MPI engine which develops 75 ps of power at 5500 rpm. The Indica rides on 4-wheel independent suspension with semi-trailing arms at the rear.
It comes with very high equipment levels and is clearly a car that is intended for the world market. It’s not surprising that TATA has a very long waiting list for this car in India, given the fact that a number of the more affordable Indian cars have designs that are quite old (although there are also recent entries from Ford and Daewoo which are a bit more expensive).
Scott & English has no plans to sell the Indica in Malaysia for at least two more years. Part of the reason is said to be the inability of the factory in India to supply cars but the other reason would be that it wants to avoid bringing extra competition to the national cars. But it is likely that in the post-AFTA era, TATA may assemble the Indica in Malaysia for regional distribution. In fact, the company is already discussing that approach on the Telcoline and some units have already been exported to Australia on a trial basis.
