No New Car From Tata Stable Till 2002

Tata Engineering has put all speculation on new models and variants of Indica to rest by categorically saying it does not plan to bring in any new car or new variants of its small car, Indica, before 2002. It's much awaited premium car Magna is now scheduled to be launched in mid-2002.

Speaking to Business Standard at the ACMA annual general meet, Rajiv Dube, general manager, Tata Engineering, said that the company is presently looking at two to three new versions of Indica and a mid-segment car, Magna. "However, Tata Engineering would neither be launching the new Indica versions nor the Magna before 2002, " Dube added.

 

Tata group chairman Ratan Tata had said that the launch of the Magna was an year to 18 months away at the Auto Expo in the capital in January this year (i.e. latest by mid-2001). However, Dube said that the Magna would be commercially launched only around mid-2002.

In June this year, Dube had mentioned that Tata Engineering plans to launch two new versions of Indica. "We would take a final decision on which new versions of the Indica we can launch by the first half of calendar 2001," he had said. Tata Engineering was considering a three-box and a family-van version of Indica, he had mentioned. However, Dube did mention that Tata Engineering is currently testing a mid-segment car (Magna) which was showcased at the 2000 Auto Expo.

Tata had mentioned at the same venue that Magna would be positioned in the premium car segment. Reacting on a recent news report that Tata Engineering had drawn up plans to launch another small car, Zing, Dube said that no such decision has been taken so far.