"The car's model is already complete. However, the company has got the final nod from its other partners, Nissan and Renault, which have approved the design," an executive from Bajaj Auto confirmed. According to sources, the car has an 800 cc petrol engine compared to Tata's 624 cc engine. Also, it is slightly more spacious than Nano. The car will be priced higher than Tata Nano .
Bajaj Auto will announce the final price and other specifications of the car at the New Delhi auto show. The first prototype of the car was shown in 2008 at the Indian Auto Expo.
"Earlier the car was supposed to be cheaper than Nano. However, other partners (Renault-Nissan) said that there should be no compromise on quality even if it means pricing it higher," the executive added.
"Moreover the company had the advantage that it could rework on the mistakes of the predecessors in the segment. Only cheap car is not enough to attract customers as consumers want value for money in this segment," the executive added.
However, he refused to reveal any other finer details about the car. Though no clear details are available, the car is a five-seater, like Tata Nano, and boasts of 30 km per litre mileage. This compares to Nano's mileage of 23 km per litre. The car will be pitched against Tata Nano, Maruti Suzuki Alto and Hyundai Eon.
Three years ago, Bajaj Auto, Nissan Motors and Renault announced that they would work on a small car, which will be priced lower than Tata Nano.
According to the initial agreement, Bajaj Auto was to work on the model, while Nissan and Renault were to be responsible for sales and marketing. However, after Nissan and Renault launched their cars on the Indian roads, rumours were rife that Renault was not happy with the model and at one point of time it was also believed that the project has been shelved.
However, after a few disagreements the project was back on track. Bajaj was working on the model for one year.
No comments:
Post a Comment