Tata Indicruz launch at Auto Expo 2010

Update: The Tata Indicruz has had a name change – it is now the Tata Aria. Read Tata Aria MPV at Auto Expo 2010 and you can see a photo below.

Photo: Tata Aria, front three quarter view

Earlier story follows below. Click photo to read the latest on the Aria.

Tata Motors has confirmed to the Financial Chronicle that the company would be launching the Tata Indicruz MPV in India at the upcoming Auto Expo 2010.

Tata Indicruz concept photo

There is a shocker, though. The story we are quoting from says that the Tata Indicruz will compete against the Honda CR-V, Chevrolet Captiva and Volvo XC90. Just wait a minute, dudes. Really?

All this while, we were under the impresson that the Indicruz will compete against the Toyota Innova, Mahindra Xylo and the likes.

The Tata Indicruz will come with airbags, ABS, automatic climate control and cruise control. All this, at a price of just 20 per cent above that of the recently launched Tata Sumo Grande Mark II.

Spy photo of the Tata Indicruz undergoing cold weather testing

Something is really off here. You do not talk about competing against the Volvo XC90 and the CR-V and then price the vehicle below Rs 10 lakhs. Again, the XC90 is a regular SUV, the CR-V is a cool crossover, and the Captiva is an SUV.

Frankly, we do not know what to make of this story. Till otherwise proved, we prefer to think about the Tata Indicruz as a competitor to our Innova and its brethren. But then again, Tata did winter testing of the Indicruz somewhere in Sweden, and BS Motoring magazine said they saw the Indicruz being tested in sub-zero temps. Tata would not bother to do that unless they plan to target a market which cares about that kind of gruelling testing.

For those of you who are like us slowly losing out long term memory, the Tata Indicruz is the Xover that was first revealed by Tata Motors at the 2005 Geneva Motor Show: Here is our first ever story on the Tata Xover.

Spy photos of the Indicruz have been leaking into Indian car forums and blogs for a long time. We have been consistently displaying just the original pictures of the Xover / Indicruz from 2005. However, the current version of the INdicruz that is nearing seems to be a bit more rounded, more Innova-like, than the original concept. Sad, take a look at the photo below – there is something very attractive about squarish lines, especially from the back. In the photo of the front, though, it looks too much like a Manza for our liking. The flanks and rear of the Indicruz, we hope, still sort of maintain those lines.

More information about the Tata Indicruz should be released in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.