With not too much going for Tata Motors despite the launch of the Zest sedan and the Bolt hatchback, the auto major is looking at turning its fortunes around with the Zica. The latest small car from its stables is set for a January 2016 launch, and is targeting the youth, company officials said.
Also a hatchback, Zica was developed in 36 months at the company’s studio in the UK and manufactured at its plant in Sanand, Gujarat. It is intended to compete with Hyundai’s i10 Grand, Maruti Suzuki’s Celerio and WagonR. The Zica launch is in line with Tata Motors’s policy to unveil two new products every year till 2020.
Zica, an abstracted form for Zippy Car, is part of this ‘Horizonext’ strategy whereby the company anticipates customers’ needs and comes out with better and futuristic products. A lot of inputs have been taken from luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) for the design process to get ‘crafted quality’, an official said.
“Zica is a complete statement on the organisational change at Tata Motors. It is a completely new product with a contemporary expressive design, and we have ensured the car will look fresh after being used for a few years,” Girish Wagh, Senior Vice-President (Programme Planning and Project Management - PVBU), Tata Motors told The Hindu .
The car will be available in petrol diesel variants and it has a gear shift indicator for comfortable driving. According to design chief Pratap Bose, the Zica has a new platform, power train and design. “Designers at Tata Motors design studios in Pune, UK and Italy worked for 12 months to come out with a new design,” Bose said.
Apart from external and internal styling, Zica comes equipped with an infotainment and audio system exclusively designed by HARMAN.
The car also introduces applications such as Turn-by-Turn Navi app and Juke-Car app, which are new to the segment, senior officials said.
The Turn-by-Turn Navi app when connected to a smartphone by Bluetooth provides guidance on estimated time of arrival and Next Maneuver, which helps in simplifying navigation while driving.
Along with Bluetooth pairing, it also supports speed volume control, steering wheel mounted information controls and phonebook on-the-fly, Tata Motors officials added.
Zica’s Juke-Car app utilizes mobile hotspot to create a virtual network and hosts a service for sharing the list of available songs in the device. All connected devices can view the songs list on the hotspot device and users can queue their requests while travelling.
To enhance customers’ experience Tata Motors has revamped its dealership network and is gearing up to handle a new set of customers with due care.
S N Barman, Vice-President, Sales and Network (PVBU), Tata Motors, who recently joined the company from Maruti Suzuki after 23 years there, said, “We have provided training at dealerships to ensure that they provide the same type of service to customers as Japanese car companies. Communication will be the main differentiating factor.
“Our objective is to be the segment leader. And we are doing everything to achieve this.”
