[airbender]

Kite launch moved to 2017.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/54029412.cms

This company is not changing. They are working like a public sector company.

[balajisv]

Originally Posted by airbender

This company is not changing. They are working like a public sector company.

They advanced Hexa launch!

[RavenAvi]

Caught testing in Coimbatore by an IAB reader.

[RavenAvi]

Spotted testing with the Tata Zest's 15-inch alloy wheels by a TAI member.

Projector headlamps can also been seen in the last spyshot.

[RavenAvi]

Reason for shifting the Kite5 launch to 2017 (in case anyone missed watching the ET Now video posted by airbender):

The reason for delay is, reportedly, attributed to the re-evaluation of Tata’s future portfolio, as the management seeks to improve the quality of construction, whilst being priced highly competitively. The Tiago is one such product where Tata banked on highly competitive prices and quality construction to lure car buyers.

The company will follow the same strategy for the upcoming Tata Kite 5 sedan as well as Tata Nexon, and are looking for ways to further minimise costs of production and supplies, whilst not compromising on quality.

IAB

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

The reason for delay is, reportedly, attributed to the re-evaluation of Tata’s future portfolio, as the management seeks to improve the quality of construction, whilst being priced highly competitively. The Tiago is one such product where Tata banked on highly competitive prices and quality construction to lure car buyers.

The company will follow the same strategy for the upcoming Tata Kite 5 sedan as well as Tata Nexon, and are looking for ways to further minimise costs of production and supplies, whilst not compromising on quality.

This is a very heartening approach. Good to see TATA making all efforts to come out triumph. However, it leaves the below questions

1. Does this mean that the other upcoming products were not designed to follow the absolute VFM principle ?

2. How much of a deviation can be brought to these products after having tested it so extensively and are probably close to production ready?

3. This may also mean the future products will be absolute bang to the buck while being secondary to only Hyundai in interior quality.

[silverado]

Is TATA planning to launch Kite during Sankrant

I feel the reason why they have pushed it back could be due to healthy sales of Tiago.

They would have developed the car not expecting such a good response for Tiago, and now they need to revisit its positioning in such a scenario.
TATA needs to do more to differentiate both Tiago and Kite and ensure both are sold in healthy numbers.

[sakthishanmugam]

Unhappy with the delay! I believe the reason for delay is Advancing the launch of Hexa. Also the launch of Kite will cannibalize the Tiago sales during festive season. A prospective Tiago customer will obviously shift to Kite due to extra boot space and features it offers.

There is a saying Tata launches half baked products to the market and then fixes the issues based on the feedback from the customer which was the case with most of Tata cars. Hope the new Tata cars are completed baked before delivering to the customer. Now, Tata had decided to provide a perfect car for it's early customers.

[srishiva]

With people unhappy with the time taken by Tata to launch any model, I wonder how the suppliers feel :(

This much of hesitation reflects poorly since its not about one model. Looks too amateurish and trial and error way of product planning.

[discoverwild]

Originally Posted by sakthishanmugam

Unhappy with the delay!

Originally Posted by srishiva

With people unhappy with the time taken by Tata to launch any model, I wonder how the suppliers feel :(

This much of hesitation reflects poorly since its not about one model. Looks too amateurish and trial and error way of product planning.

Why blame Tata? They are getting things right, aren't they? Streamlining vendors, quality at source, giving us VFM offerings. The Tiago was more geared towards diesel and with a conservative estimate, that the public preferred the petrol over the diesel due to Government's hackneyed stance towards oil burners, put them on the back foot. But there has been no compromise in production quality from what we've heard here.

The Suzuki Ignis was showcased in 2015 and we still haven't seen its prototypes on the road. I don't see anyone complaining there. For years, Maruti has had the advantage of being supported by policies and Suzuki's spoon-feeding. Tata is an independent manufacturer and expecting them to function like Maruti is asking a little too much of them.

I saw the Kite sedan for a fleeting moment yesterday. Don't recall seeing projector headlamps, so there could be a base model too.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by discoverwild

The Suzuki Ignis was showcased in 2015 and we still haven't seen its prototypes on the road.

Wrong. Ignis was showcased for the first time in India during the 2016 Delhi Expo.

It has been spied testing multiple times, the first spotting coming days after the expo (news). And as per reports, it is production ready for Diwali launch, but might get delayed if the huge demand for Brezza and Baleno continues to test Maruti's production capacity.

Originally Posted by discoverwild

I don't see anyone complaining there.

Established players can afford the delay. Maruti for example came very late to the premium C segment, premium hatchback and compact SUV party, but currently positioned well on top of all three.

But TATA Motors can't afford such a delay. Hexa for example was a mighty package against the old Innova when it got showcased at the 2014 Expo, but 2.5 years later, the competition has caught up and destroyed whatever advantage they had. Nexon is getting delayed so much, it might come in too close to the Hyundai Carlino and loose the advantage of those beautiful interiors.

Coming to the Kite sedan, the compact sedan segment is losing its shine these days after some good product launches in the premium hatch and compact SUV space. Even good all round products like the Aspire are struggling to gain traction in the market space. The real advantage for Kite lies in pricing (Tiago is already brilliant value) and the awesome ICE. With Maruti working on the ICE upgrades with Harmann, soon it might loose one of its major advantages. With GST model threatening to kill the sub-4m tax advantages, the entire segment might lose the other advantage of pricing.

Anyways, it's not a new product and atleast 80% of it should remain the same as the Tiago. Should have hit the market already, ahead of the Hexa (which wouldn't anyways make an impact like the Kite could).

[SAE40 in veins]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Established players can afford the delay. Maruti for example came very late to the premium C segment, premium hatchback and compact SUV party, but currently positioned well on top of all three.

But TATA Motors can't afford such a delay. Hexa for example was a mighty package against the old Innova when it got showcased at the 2014 Expo, but 2.5 years later, the competition has caught up and destroyed whatever advantage they had. Nexon is getting delayed so much, it might come in too close to the Hyundai Carlino and loose the advantage of those beautiful interiors.
.

It is not the delay but the fact that they disclosed their cards too soon in the expos earlier which is making people make these comments. Maruti is set to launch 15 new products by 2020 but other than the Ignis, have we seen any other offering from them? same with the Carlino, apart from the futuristic concept in the expo, have we even seen a spy shot of a test vehicle ?. I feel that things are perfectly alright with Tata just that they need to exercise internal restraint while displaying models too early and not get carried away by 'Expo' fever by bringing out all what is in the works.

[discoverwild]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Wrong. Ignis was showcased for the first time in India during the 2016 Delhi Expo.

It has been spied testing multiple times.

Established players can afford the delay. Maruti for example came very late to the premium C segment, premium hatchback and compact SUV party, but currently positioned well on top of all three.

But TATA Motors can't afford such a delay.

Coming to the Kite sedan, the compact sedan segment is losing its shine these days after some good product launches in the premium hatch and compact SUV space. Even good all round products like the Aspire are struggling to gain traction in the market space. The real advantage for Kite lies in pricing (Tiago is already brilliant value) and the awesome ICE. With Maruti working on the ICE upgrades with Harmann, soon it might loose one of its major advantages. With GST model threatening to kill the sub-4m tax advantages, the entire segment might lose the other advantage of pricing.

Anyways, it's not a new product and atleast 80% of it should remain the same as the Tiago. Should have hit the market already, ahead of the Hexa (which wouldn't anyways make an impact like the Kite could).

My bad on the spy pics. Hadn't looked into the page for the last month or so. Tata cannot afford a goof up either. So I would still give it to them to ensure that they are bang on target in pricing and quality. The market will not saturate for sedans or compact sedans. They might lose appeal for enthusiasts and car crazy guys like us who have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But for the general public, it is about 'kitna detha hai', and pricing.

I believe the Hexa will make a major impact compared to the Kite. The variants on offer for the Hexa from the available pictures, show a huge price gap being filled. I also expect to see it bring numbers in the taxi segment which is devoid of a decent offering in the price bracket of the older Innova.

The Tiago is still creating waves and Tata do not want the Kite cannibalizing on the Tiago at this juncture. Also, they still have to ramp up vendor deliveries to meet demand. So all in all, makes perfect sense to me.

[kvish]

I think the delay might as well be due to GST coming in and compact sedan restrictions of 4mt length going away. They might be redesigning and extending the length. Creating a segment first full length sedan that can compete with hatchback pricing.

[teemus]

Originally Posted by kvish

I think the delay might as well be due to GST coming in and compact sedan restrictions of 4mt length going away. They might be redesigning and extending the length. Creating a segment first full length sedan that can compete with hatchback pricing.

That could very well be true and logical too!

As it is, Kite has a droolworthy rear amongst all Compact sedans available; now imagine if the Tata designers got the extra room to make it a Complete Sedan instead of a compact one.

It will be poor man's Jaguar, at least from the rear.