Friday, December 04, 2015
By Kamal Swami
Tata Kite compact sedan to be named as Sway
Name of Tata Kite is not new among Indian car enthusiasts because of its regular appearance on the curtain of Indian car market from time to time. After successful launch of Zest and Bolt by domestic car name of Kite emerged as one of the highly awaited name in Indian auto world, especially after announcement of its being launched in both hatchback and compact sedan segment. Interestingly couple of days back home grown car maker pulled curtain off from its hatchback version by naming it as Tata Zica, rather than Kite hatchback, and since then speculations got started taking place among industry experts regarding the name of Kite, compact sedan. It is now reported that compact sedan Tata Kite would be named as Tata Sway and will debut during the upcoming Indian Auto Expo 2016.
As both Zica and Sway are developed on same Xo platform they carry same engine configurations in petrol and diesel variants. The petrol variant will be energized with 1.2 litre three cylinder DOHC engine churning the power of 83.8 bhp and torque of 6000 rpm, the diesel variant is empowered with 1.0 litre three cylinder diesel engine which will generate the power of 69 bhp and torque of 140Nm. Both the engines would be mated with five speed manual gear transmission system and also with AMT system in top end trim of petrol variant. It will be also in three driving options of Eco, City and Sport.
Sway is speculated to carry the best features offered in its segment including Harman infotainment system loaded with eight speakers and supporting connectivity with Bluetooth, steering mounted audio controls, dual airbags, electronic ORVMs and ABS. After launch Tata Sway will compete against Hyundai Xcent. It would be interested to know that the launch of Zica and Sway in Indian car marker will remind car enthusiasts about Hyundai Grand i10 and Xcent which were developed on same platform and were launched in sequence.
