[jalsa777]

Tata Motors has launched the Tata Divo, a long distance inter-city bus and the Tata Starbus Ultra, an intra-city bus for the western region. It was launched for the northern region back in December 2011.
The Tata Divo:




Highlights:

• The range starts from Rs. 66 lakh, ex-showroom Thane.
• The body design comes from Hispano Carrocera of Spain, a fully owned subsidiary of Tata Motors.
• It offers semi-sleeper and seater configurations.
• Largest luggage space in the category.
• The body is built at the ACGL facility at Goa with an annual capacity of around 600 units.
• The Divo brand and design is sold all over the world by Hispano.
• No plans for export.
• Target sales for the first year: 150 units .

Technical Details:

• 6.7L BSIII Cummins Engine.
• Power: 285 bhp @ 2500 rpm.
• Torque: 970 Nm @ 1600 rpm.
• ZF 6-speed transmission with overdrive.
• Voith VR 120-4 Hydrodynamic Retarder.
• Brakes: Front discs, rear drums. With ABS.
• Air Suspension. Front independent suspension.
• Carrier 353 Gen IV, 10T roof mounted AC.
• Max Speed: 114 kmph.
• Gross Weight: 16200 kg.

This bus body is from the Hispano worldwide stables:




Note the Screen for the reversing camera:


Electronic Throttle Control:


Pneumatically suspended drivers seat:








Fan for the driver:


AC vents for the driver. Similar vents present for the cleaner also:






Foot rest:




LCD screen and digital clock:


Refrigerator:


Charging points near the cleaner's seat. Mobile phone holders a good feature. But no charging points for individual seats:


Reading lights and AC vents for all passengers:


A lot to be desired in the finishing department :




For all those who always wanted to see a bus engine:


HUGE radiator:


Big AC compressor. It is mounted on a free rocking table with a damper and spring arrangement:


Its a V-Twin :

[jalsa777]

The Tata Starbus Ultra:



Highlights:

• The price range starts from Rs. 15 lakh and goes upto Rs. 22 lakh, ex-showroom Thane.
• This is an extension to the existing Starbus range and offers more features.
• Available in Luxury, Standard, School and Deluxe variants. Has different seating configurations (22 – 46 seater), on different wheelbases.
• It is the first bus in its category with the front door ahead of the front axle, resulting in more seats for the same length of bus and subsequently better returns for the operator.
• The service interval has also been doubled from 3 months to 6 months resulting in more on road availability and lower maintenance costs for the operators.
• Based on new LCV platform that was launched at the Auto Expo 2012. Thus, this bus has a wider track and lowest in class turning circle diameter.
• Body manufactured at the Marcopolo Facility at Dharwad. This facility is almost running at its full capacity of 18000 units per annum.

Technical Details:

• Has the Tata 497 engine along with a viscous fan (used for the first time in this class of buses), resulting in higher fuel efficiency and lowest NVH levels in its category.
• Power: 123 bhp @ 2400 rpm.
• Torque: 400 Nm @ 1300-1500 rpm.
• Gearbox: G550, 6-speed with overdrive.
• Tiltable and telescopic steering with a power steering.
• Dual circuit brakes with ABS.
• Max. Speed: 101 kmph.
• Gross Wight: 8750 kg.

The front door is ahead of the axle, thus allowing for more seats inside:


Notice the cup holders for the driver:


Very basic instrument cluster:


Wide aisle thanks to the new platform. Its genuinely comfortable to walk along this bus.
Also, the seats can be reclined upto 135 degrees:


Huge leg space. Also, these bottle holders seem to be better designed than the one's on the Divo and other long distance buses:


AC vents and reading lights for all passengers. That exposed circuit with LEDs was that way on all these overhead units:


Grab rails on both the luggage racks:


Plug points near the first row:


The seats were branded Royal Comfort !!


Bad finishing even on this one.

[jalsa777]

Some other stats:

• India is the second largest bus market in the world after China.
• Tata is the second largest bus builder in the world.
• Starbus is the largest mini and midi bus brand in Asia.
• It has 60% market share in India.
• 15000+ Starbuses sold annually.
• 60-70 % of the buses sold in India now come with a body from the factory.
• The bus segment is growing at a steady 10-15% annually.

[A350XWB]

Tata is still lacking the quality, especially the interiors. In the picture showing the driver seat, just look at the air-release lever for the parking brake. I seriously don't think that the age-old lever belongs to a 66 Lakh, so called modern bus, designed by Hispano. And look at the outside rear-view mirrors. Seems like aftermarket fitment. Come on Tata, you can do better than this.

[directinjection]

Thanks for the pics Jalsa! Does the Divo bus engine have mechanical or CRDI fuel pump?

Originally Posted by jalsa777

Some other stats:

• 60-70 % of the buses sold in India now come with a body from the factory.

That's a welcome development. However, the quality levels continue to remain below what one would expect from factory-built buses. The Dharwad factory is claimed to be the world's largest bus body building plant. Yet, these buses don't look or feel significantly better than those built by local body builders, as your pics reveal. Quality is well below that of Volvo which is also built in India.

[coriollis]

Awesome Pictures Jalsa!
I had traveled in one before it was named divo. The one I am talking about was given to MSRTC for trials. It was ghastly green in color, but was pleasantly surprised with its ride comfort.
Also it featured a 225 hp Heart. It was driven by a veteran MSRTC driver accompanied by a mechanic (Mr Sheikh) provided by TATA Motors. Driver was just zooming past other vehicles merrily. He was happy with overall manners of the bus. The ghats were also negotiated easily unlike the Cerita-Kinglong buses with similar spec engines.
I found the seats more wide as compared to normal volvo/merc buses, but that had compromised the gangway dimensions.
But in terms of overall finishing quality, ACGL is ages behind Volvo and I am sorry to say SUTLEJ also.
Hope that we get a decent product from TATA's that would spice up the Indian Bus Scenario.

[SAE40 in veins]

Originally Posted by directinjection

Thanks for the pics Jalsa! Does the Divo bus engine have mechanical or CRDI fuel pump?[/list].

The Divo has a CRDI unit (ISBe 6.7) whereas the Starbus is fitted with a BS III 497 unit which is a rotary pump injected one.

[directinjection]

Originally Posted by SAE40 in veins

The Divo has a CRDI unit (ISBe 6.7)

Then should it not be BS-IV compliant? Cummins had developed BS-III version of B 5.9 using a mechanical pump, specially for India. If the objective is to meet only BS-III, the same could have been done with 6.7 too. But then perhaps they decided to save on R&D cost given the fewer numbers of 6.7. When does the CV market shift to BS-IV?

[Mpower]

Exactly how much are the direct competitive products from Volvo, MB and AL?

Originally Posted by directinjection

[/list]That's a welcome development. However, the quality levels continue to remain below what one would expect from factory-built buses.

As long as the price is proportional to the quality, it is still attractive to the operator.

At the end of the day what matters to the customer is the ride quality, engine smoothness, NVH, performance, braking, seat comfort and safety....not the welding of some bracket. So I hope TATA is focusing on those while cutting costs elsewhere where it does'nt matter

[SAE40 in veins]

Originally Posted by directinjection

Then should it not be BS-IV compliant? Cummins had developed BS-III version of B 5.9 using a mechanical pump, specially for India. If the objective is to meet only BS-III, the same could have been done with 6.7 too. But then perhaps they decided to save on R&D cost given the fewer numbers of 6.7. When does the CV market shift to BS-IV?

Actually many manufacturers in the Passenger car and CV domain have both BS III and BS IV engines in the same Common Rail platform where the difference is just the after treatment & EGR calibration.
In those cases the BS III versions will be more cost effective compared to BS IV versions while being equally or more fuel efficient.

AFAIK B 5.9 was not sporting an India spec mechanical pump but always had a mech pump and globally the 6.7 was planned as a replacement of the B 5.9 starting with the Dodge Ram pick up.

[A350XWB]

Originally Posted by Mpower

At the end of the day what matters to the customer is the ride quality, engine smoothness, NVH, performance, braking, seat comfort and safety....not the welding of some bracket. So I hope TATA is focusing on those while cutting costs elsewhere where it does'nt matter

Fully agree to this point. But, don't you think that the points I've highlighted in bold italics have a direct correlation to the quality? NVH definitely depends on how well things are put together. And I really don't think that the protruding, and crudely welded parking brake lever is safe in case of an accident. Below are the pictures of the driver cabin of two buses, the first one of a Scania and the second one of the Hispano Divo itself, but from the following site (TATA HISPANO)
How much money will it cost Tata to design the parking brake like the ones shown below?

Scania Intercity coach


And the Hispano Divo, as it's offered elsewhere

[ashis89]

Divo looks good but the overall quality doesn't look promising. Then again it costs much lesser than the likes of MB and VOLVO. Recently launched MB inter-city and intra-city buses start from 80L onwards. But still they should improve the finishing of their products. I mean a new shiny bus should never have an old wornout gear lever cover atleast.

[libranof1987]

Lack of finishing apart, the buses look good and refreshing.

I find the front of the Divo quite low; have a feeling it is going to be scraped pretty often. Refrigerator is good but only 4 points is not cool. We Indians are disciplined so there's going to be a good amount of arguments over who gets to use them.

Everything said and done, I just hope that these buses do not sound anywhere close to the current intra-city a/c Tata-Marco Polo buses; a jet engine is put to shame by their engine noise. That and hope they move faster!

I will continue to hope for that day when manufacturers provide speaker volume control for each passenger!

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by jalsa777

Highlights:

• The range starts from Rs. 66 lakh, ex-showroom Thane.
• The body design comes from Hispano Carrocera of Spain, a fully owned subsidiary of Tata Motors.
• It offers semi-sleeper and seater configurations.
• Largest luggage space in the category.
• The body is built at the ACGL facility at Goa with an annual capacity of around 600 units.
• The Divo brand and design is sold all over the world by Hispano.
• No plans for export.
• Target sales for the first year: 150 units .

The bus looks good. I think the leg space is tight in the display bus - Could be because they've fixed 11 rows of semi-sleeper seats - for semi-sleeper seats 9+1 is preferred (9 rows of semi-sleeper and 1 row of regular seats).

The finish is not great, but still is a good product for an Indian company. ACGL was never a good body builder to talk of - the earlier version of Globus had awful fixtures.

The Starbus Ultra looks disproportionate to me - may be its just me. The tyres looks puny compared to the body.

The legspace looks tight in this one as well. The first row would be painful - especially with a whole lot of charging points kept right next to the seat.

Hope TATA sells this one well - would be a good product, but would sell a notch below the Volvo-Mercs, mainly due to the brand recall in the Indian Market.

[Ashley2]

India is the second largest bus market in the world after China.
Tata is the second largest bus builder in the world.
Star bus is the largest mini and midi bus brand in Asia.
It has 60% market share in India.
15000+ Star buses sold annually.
60-70 % of the buses sold in India now come with a body from the factory.
The bus segment is growing at a steady 10-15% annually.

Some more infos and stats:

-India is a distant second big bus market to China
Total sale of heavy buses for the year 2011.
China – 164,339
India - 50066

-Tata’s second largest bus maker tag comes including the LCV buses. For the segment above 8T the following is the share as on 2009.
Mercedes Benz
Ashokleyland
Tata Motors
Youtong
Saw.

Approx 65% of total is by chassis sale and the rest is fully built.


-Overall market share in India segment vise as follows


-LCV bus grew by 5% and M&HCV segment is almost flat (declined by ~1%).

-The number of starbus sold per year is likely to be around 20000 (as the entire ICV/LCV range is sold as Starbus)

- By and large Tata motors is the only manufacturer to have comprehensive presence in the entire spectrum of buses