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| The trucks of the matter |
| BSM Team / Mumbai Jun 06, 2009, 00:39 IST |
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Tata Motors introduces a range of world-class trucks.
What do you think of when we mention Tata and trucks in the same statement? You don’t generally relate ergonomics, safety, performance and style with Tata trucks, right? Well, that might just become a thing of the past. And the reason for that is the truck you see on this page.
This is the fruit of Tata Motors'’labour over five years — to change the very face of trucking in the country that Tata first developed nearly six decades ago. Call it the face of a new, resurgent Tata Motors; one that isn’t just acquiring fabled brands like Land Rover, but can take on established world names like Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Scania and MAN head-on.
It all began when Tata Motors acquired Daewoo’s trucking arm in 2004. The South Korean company had a brilliant product platform on its drawing board, but not the money to execute it. Tata Motors, which was then looking to expand their portfolio and improve their learning curve, looked at the product with keen interest. In what was considered a give-and-take relationship, Tata offered its range of MCVs in return for a world class truck platform.
The World Truck is available in three distinct chassis styles, 200 different applications and 1,000 combinations. That might sound like a supplier nightmare, but it isn’t. With two tractor-trailer axle options, five multi rigids and a two-axle to begin with, Tata Motors will manufacture the truck range at a robotised line at Jamshedpur, the only other manufacturing facility for the World Truck outside Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicles at Gunsan, South Korea. While the range consists of engines developing 148 bhp to 552 bhp, the Indian operations will commence with 280 and 380 horsepower versions, with the choice of Cummins or Cursor 9 engines and six-, nine- or 12-speed gearboxes.
Tata Motors has spared no effort in this project. With an investment of over Rs 1,000 crore, which includes R&D expenses and a 55,000 unit annual capacity plant, it has gone for the best in the business. Design inputs from Stilo Bertone and technical inputs from Tata's European tech centre apart, it has done Quality Function Deployment (QFD) tests in the BRIC countries as well as completed engine, suspension and gearbox development and tests in Europe and the US. Safety tests too were carried out, including the Swedish Impact test and a 147 kN roof test to replicate roll-over. The battery of tests lasted over one million kilometres on road and one million on the test rig. In the end, the vehicles meet not only Euro 3 and Euro 4 norms, but can be prepared for Euro 5 as well, while meeting stringent safety standards.
The modern cab of the World Truck can accommodate sleeper versions and also come with, among other things, automatic climate control, steering wheel controls for the stereo, electrically height adjustable seats, anti-lock braking systems, etc. With the truck set to roll out across the country in the next two months and exports to begin by the last quarter of the current financial year to the Middle East, Turkey and Russia, Tata Motors will have their hands full with the World Truck. And hopefully, it will, once and for all, change the way you think about their trucks.
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