Now also with a robotic manual transmission
Safe and cheap? In Europe, we’re increasingly getting the impression that those don’t go together, but in India, you can order a new Tata Altroz with a crash test score of 5 stars for around €7,000.
Those stars don’t come from the European EuroNCAP, of course, but from GNCAP. That ‘Global Ncap’ provides crash tests and safety labels in countries that haven’t organized it themselves, and previously awarded the Tata Altroz 5 stars. Now, Tata is presenting a new version of the Altroz, which was introduced in 2019. The Indian industry giant even calls it ‘all new,’ but we suspect they’re playing a little trick on our eyesight. It seems more like an extensive facelift, but a very extensive one at that. Not only is the front, now fully equipped with LED lighting, new, but the sides have also been adjusted. For example, the thick black border under the side windows is now much less thick, and the Altroz has recessed door handles.
Chic, but the Altroz also has to be ‘premium.’ The hatchback can therefore also be equipped with a 360-degree camera, paddle shifters, a continuous LED taillight bar, a sleek-looking touch panel for the climate control, and a – yes – sunroof with voice control. Customers can choose from a 1.2-liter three-cylinder gasoline or CNG, or a 1.5-liter four-cylinder turbo diesel. No fewer than three transmissions are available for the gasoline engine: a manual transmission, a DCT automatic transmission, and now also a robotic manual transmission, which should be cheaper than the DCT.
And the Altroz is good at being cheap. We won’t make a complete comparison with its Indian competitors, but converted to euros, you already have this newcomer for 7 grand, which is of course downright sharp for us Europeans. The absolute top model with a diesel engine costs a lot more in percentage terms, but in absolute figures, it still costs less than €12,000 on the doorstep.