The Tata Nexon is arguably one of the funkiest cars to have rolled out of the design studios at Tata Motors. The test mules of the new crossover have been making an appearance on public roads regularly and have been reported several times on various auto blogs in India. What we have here, though are the clearest images yet of the crossover spied testing in cold weather in the Himalayas. Our colleague Prabhakar Rao AVR, who was wandering around in the mountains covering a motorsport event sighted the vehicles crossing a bridge, and managed to get some clear shots revealing a few interesting details about the model.
There were two separate test mules, with number plates ending with letters D and M. After a close look at the images, it seems that the two cars on test are two different variants, though owing to the heavy camouflage and a lack of markings, we couldn’t be certain if the two cars had different engines powering them. Most likely both cars were diesel powered. Here we have a list of the most interesting details we could observe on the test cars
Also Read: Tata Nexon Detailed Design review
- The two cars featured projector headlamps, nestled inside a twin pod setup and featuring chrome highlights
- The angular tail lamps on both the cars get chrome highlights
- Both cars had a mesh grille with Tata emblem in the middle, although one of the cars had the mesh partly covered with camouflage
- The mesh grille has a grey / black upper lining and a silver lower lining
- Both test mules had round fog lamps placed on the massive bumper
- The test mule with the number plate ending with letter D gets a silver central air dam (lower grille) up front. And while the rear bumper is completely camouflaged, we’d like to assume that the lower portion of the rear bumpr would also don a similar treatment. The car with the M number plate has those sections in plain black plastic
- One of the cars with relatively lesser camouflage also features a black plaque below the rear windscreen
- Both cars featured a black coloured roof mounted spoiler
- Both cars seem to be riding on 15 inch wheels, giving them a nice, muscular look at the bottom. Both cars had steel rims though
- Tyres are wide, suggesting powerful propulsion for both car
- Thick C pillar might hamper rear view
- Wing mirrors are two tone and have integrated blinkers
- You can see plastic black coloured door handles and black plastic door mouldings on one of the cars
- Seems like the car will also get black undercladding under the door sills and on the arches for an off-road appeal
- The car with the M-lettered plate seems to be a lower spec variant as it doesn’t have a rear wiper, although tit does feature a projector setup on the headlamps
- You can clearly see a black applique between the lower body and the roof, acting as a visual separator
The interiors of the Nexon are expected to benefit from a low slung dashboard featuring dull silver inserts. It also follows a dual tone theme with off white and black/grey colouration; quite like the Zica’s interior colours. A Land Rover style high-set transmission tunnel would likely host the Terrain Response knob which sets up certain vehicle parameters to counter a variety of terrains. A large, free standing display will be one of the interfaces for the HARMAN infotainment system.
The Nexon is based on the heavily reworked version of the Vista platform. It is expected to debut with new engines from the Revotron family and will have a turbocharged, 1.5-liter diesel unit under its hood. Peak power is expected to be rated at 108 hp with a peak torque of 260 Nm . A manual 6-speed gearbox along with an AMT option will take care of the transmission duties. .
For now, there are no official details on the launch of the Nexon, but reports suggest that it will be out by the end of this year or early next year following the launch of the Tata Kite 5/ Tiago sedan and the Hexa SUV. In the Indian market, the Nexon will lock horns with Ford EcoSport, Mahindra TUV 300, and the recently launched Mahindra NuvoSport and Suzuki Vitara Brezza.
Check out an image gallery of the spy images below (click to expand)
