BANGALORE: Close on the heels of their recent offerings on March 2005 - the Globus and the Starbus range of contemporary buses, India's auto major Tata Motors Ltd. (TML) showcased their latest commercial vehicle offering Tata Ace at Bangalore.
 
 
Executive director-Commercial Vehicles Business Unit TML Ravi Kant said that development of road infrastructure in the country has led to the increase in the distribution of goods across India, based on the hub and spoke model.

"Witnessing the significant growth in the sub 1 ton payload category which was currently being serviced by the three-wheeler segment, TML decided to develop a reliable and cost-effective 4 wheeler for the sub-1 ton payload category with a water cooled, twin cylinder diesel engine, after detailed surveys and studies in India and around the world, especially in India and China. Tata mini-truck belongs to a totally new category in the Indian commercial vehicles segment. It is also among the few mini-trucks in the world to be powered by a diesel engine," he said.

 
 
The Ace has an ergonomically designed, all steel cabin with a display of car-like features including two-toned seats, clear instrument cluster, utility trays, magazine pockets, twin blade-twin speed wipers and combination switches. The fully loaded Ace can reach speeds of up to 65 kmph as against the average 45 kmph speed of three-wheeler having a similar payload.
The vehicle is powered by an altered two-cylinder Indica engine which delivers a maximum hp of 16 @ 3200 rpm and a maximum torque of 3.8 mkg at 2000 rpm.

 
 
TML's current manufacturing capacity is 30000 vehicles per year, which can be doubled with a minimal amount of investment. Rs.1.8 billion has been invested in the development, design, R & d and manufacturing facility. TML's existing infrastructure, facilities have been generally used and manpower drawn from other TML operations which have been seeing improvement in productivity, and hence would be unaffected by the reduction of their labor force.