It is surprising to know that the Maruti Eeco has no challengers in its segment and price bracket. The only other challenger is its own stable mate, the Maruti Suzuki Omni. However the crude image of this car means that most of the buyers would stick with the Maruti Eeco and not go for the Omni. The whole setup may change in a short while. There is another worthy competitor coming its way. No, we aren’t referring to the GM’s offensive by the way of bringing its low cost Chinese offering into India. We are talking about the new Tata Venture in India.
Now, the Tata Venture in India by Tata Motors was displayed early on last year in the Delhi Auto Expo show. It will be a seven seater van and would look like one also. The niche passenger cargo segment hasn’t witnessed too much action in all these years and looks like every feather would be ruffled in the coming months in 2011. The Tata Ace in India would come with a 7 seater configuration and a diesel engine. It is based on the Tata’s very own ACE platform. The engine powering this van would be a diesel engine preferably the 1.4 liter diesel from the Tata Indica range. It would churn out close to 78 Bhp and would be tuned more for lower down poke.
The advantage for the Tata Venture in India is that this segment isn’t that crowded as of now and moreover it has a diesel engine under its hood which would mean that running costs would be an all time low. The 1.4 diesel is known for its frugal nature and this would be amplified with the lighter ACE platform. Sightings of test mules running around near Tata’s plant in Pune shows that this van is compact like the Nano but would have good interior space. Also mules mean that Tata Motors have finished testing this van and would now launch it any time soon. It would be available at a premium than the Maruti offering however we firmly believe that it does have a market in India. One of the Tata Motors official confirmed that this car would be launched by end of February 2011. Fleet and taxi owners rejoice as the pricing is said to hover around the Rs 4.5 lakhs mark.
Amazing vehicles..!