There you go. Tata Motors will soon unveil its own sports car. And it’ll do so under its newly launched sub-brand called TAMO. The first concept will premiere at the upcoming 87th Geneva International Motor Show on March 7, 2017.
Tata Motors says that TAMO will act as an incubating center of innovation towards new technologies, business models and partnerships in order to define future mobility solutions. Its a new, separated vertical that’ll operate in the first step on a low volume, low investment model to provide fast tracked proves of technologies and concepts.
TAMO will also act as an open platform to network with global startups and leading tech companies, to get access to trends,innovations and solutions, for the design of future products and services.
Coming back to the sports car (teaser above), it’s internally known as the Futuro. The Futuro will be a two-seater, mid-engined sports car that’s said to be completely designed in-house, apart from its chassis, which has apparently been developed under the helm of iconic designer Marcello Gandini.
While more details of the Futuro are scarce, word has it that it’ll be powered by a turbocharged 1.2 Revotron petrol engine tweaked to develop around 180hp. While that doesn’t sound like much, the Tata TAMO Futuro will be one light car – said to be tipping the scales at just 800 kg courtesy of a mixture of composite plastics and aluminium in its construction.
The Tata Aria Coupe Concept from the 2001 Geneva Auto Show
As for the price, the TAMO Futuro is expected to cost around INR 25 lakh (ex-showroom). The sports car is expected to hit Indian showrooms by 2018, and a near production ready prototype will be shown at the Auto Expo the same year.
Also Read – Five production-ready Tata Concept Cars which never made it to production
Speaking on the announcement, Guenter Butschek, MD & CEO, Tata Motors, said, “The success of our transformation journey‘FutuReady’ is measured by our vision and depends on our ability to deliver on our comprehensive strategies for our business units. Our game plan addresses six themes – topline improvement, cost management, structural improvements, customer centricity, new mobility solutions and organizational effectiveness. To secure our future in a rapidly changing environment, the advanced mobility solutions space is of utmost importance. The introduction of TAMO will help us to co-design India’s automotive footprint by taking new technologies and mobility concepts as a new ecosystem to market.”
Tata Aria Coupe Concept (2001)
Speaking on its PV Strategy, Mayank Pareek, President, PV Business, Tata Motors, said, “In line with our new PV strategy, our portfolio will include a mix of brand enhancing products and ones that are well aligned to the rising aspirations of the different target customer segments. Our strategy is to deliver 7-8 product variants from two platforms, for greater coverage and sizable economies of scale. Our new architectural approach supports our effort to reduce complexity, enables future technologies and ensures global relevance. We have mapped technology solutions in key areas such as powertrain systems, ADAS and enhanced connectivity to our future product portfolioand have defined the application framework. Our goal is not to just comply with the emerging regulations but be ahead of the requirement.”
Speaking on tapping innovative mindset globally, Dr. Tim Leverton, President and Head Advanced and Product Engineering, Tata Motors, said, “With TAMO, we are starting a new era. The idea is to find new and agile ways of innovating and experimenting. Our success in this new mobility world will be contingent to ourability to network globally and to partner with new thought leaders. Our focus will be to scout for new technologies and to explore opportunities at the innovation hubs across the globe and to work with start-ups in the new spaces. Since this requires a different way of thinking, we will apply within TAMO also, new ways of working because leadership is all about time to market.”
The first product developed by TAMO will premiere at the upcoming 87th Geneva International Motor Show on March 7, 2017.
Source: Autocar India
