Competition in compact sedan heats up; Tata, Ford and Hyundai in fray

The fast-growing compact sedansegment in India’s automobile industry is set for heavycompetition with Tata Motors and Ford India unveilingtheir products on Tuesday and Hyundai India joining in day.

Tata Motors introduced its compact sedan Zest, along withits Bolt hatchback, ahead of the Auto Expo to be held fromFebruary 5 to 11. Ford made the global unveiling of its FigoConcept, which will be its first compact sedan offering inIndia.

The new entrants will take on Dzire from Maruti Suzukiand Amaze from Honda, which are priced between Rs 5.69 lakhand Rs 7.77 lakh. Compact car sales in India are expected to grow fromabout a million units last year to roughly 2 million units in2018, according to newly appointed Ford India President NigelHarris.

[caption id=“attachment_74159” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Ford made the global unveiling of its Figo Concept, which will be its first compact sedan offering in India. Photo: Amit Verma/Forbes[/caption]

“After the success we had with the Figo and Ecosport, weneeded to come up with another strong product, which is whatwe are doing with Figo Concept,” he said on Wednesday.While he did not reveal when the car would be available,Harris said, “It is closer to production and we are notseveral years away.”

Consumers are more demanding than ever, wanting andexpecting more from their cars, even if they are first-timebuyers, Ford Motor Company Global Product Development VicePresident of Engineering Kumar Galhotra said.“With the Figo Concept, we are showing that choosing acompact sedan does not mean compromising on premium design orsmart solutions,” Galhotra said.

Tata Motors is pinning its hopes on the Zest, which willbe available in both petrol and diesel versions, along withthe Bolt, which will come only with petrol engine.The diesel variant of Zest will be powered by a 1.3 litreengine.

The company will start selling these new cars by thesecond half of the year, Tata Motors President PassengerVehicles Ranjt Yadav said. These will add to the existing lineup of Indica and Indigo.

“The journey has just started and with these two newvehicles we would like to increase our market share,” Yadavsaid, adding there are no plans to phase out Indica andIndigo.Zest will be the second product in the sub-four metrecompact car segment, after the Indigo CS.
Adding to the competition will be the compact sedanversion of Hyundai’s Grand i10, which the company will unveil today.

According to sources in Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the carwill be launched around March.

PTI