Maker of World's Cheapest Car Really Wants to Build a Mid-engine Sportscar
Tata Motors is best known for its unbelievably affordable and incredibly petite Nano supermini and the tiny Ace work truck. In fact, the two are so affordable that you could purchase them both in India with every optional extra and they would cost roughly the same as a base U.S. model Nissan Versa with no add-ons.
Despite still being deeply rooted in the economy car scene, Tata has grown in recent years — it currently builds smaller SUVs — and now wants to build itself a sportscar. While your first inclination is probably to say “how adorable” in a belittling tone, don’t forget that Tata also constructs vans, city buses, commercial trucks, construction equipment, and military vehicles. It could turn out a little basic, but the Indian automaker is probably up to the challenge of a small sports car.
Still, how utterly adorable.
Released in a teaser shot completely obscured by a red blanket, Tata’s new performance car will be called the Futuro and will be the first vehicle from the company’s new Tamo sub-brand. According to the company, Tamo will serve as a way to future-proof Tata by seeking “mobility solutions” and modernizing its passenger vehicle strategy. A big part of that will be the development of a couple of scalable modular platforms that will reduce complexity between vehicles and minimize cost while still allowing the brand to head slightly upmarket.
The mid-engined Futuro is to be the company’s first step toward offering slightly more expensive aspirational vehicles. Details are scarce, but Autocar India says it could cost as much as $35,000 — almost double that of Tata’s most expensive SUV — and model itself after the Opel Speedster.
Autocar cites inside sources as suggesting the Tamo sportscar would be powered by a turbocharged 1.2-liter Revotron engine making around 180 horsepower. Not exactly impressive, but isn’t terribly far from the power delivery of a turbocharged 2003 Opel Speedster. While cost constraints have eliminated the use of carbon fiber or any other exotic polymer, Tata Motors plans on minimizing weight by using composite plastics and aluminum, targeting a ludicrously light curb weight of 1,764 pounds.
Based off the Tamo logo and techie graphics, it sure looks like someone at Tata got into cyberpunk recently or really enjoys Faraday Future’s visual marketing style. Tata definitely wants to use the new sub-brand to ditch its old image and become the cool kid in class, though there are two ways to do that. There is the guy that spends his entire summer exercising and building up his confidence and the guy that buys a leather duster and wraparound sunglasses.
The Futuro will premiere at the Geneva International Motor Show on March 7 as a two-seater concept with aspirations to make it to market as a low volume flagship.
[Image: Tata Motors]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
More by Matt Posky
Comments
Join the conversation
"Despite still being deeply rooted in the economy car scene, Tata has grown in recent years — it currently builds smaller SUVs — and now wants to build itself a sportscar. While your first inclination is probably to say “how adorable” in a belittling tone, don’t forget that Tata also constructs vans, city buses, commercial trucks, construction equipment, and military vehicles." Well they also own all of JLR so they're pretty well versed in high end vehicles including a few sports cars.
Tata is a very large and diverse industrial company. Vehicle manufacturing ranges from prestige UK marques, heavy trucks and equipment to the Nano. Tata has steelworks, mines and is involved in most every industry. It's huge. I do believe Tata can easily produce this sports car using in house knowledge and tech. I hope to see this sports car in Australia.