Tata Tiago AMT spied ahead of September launch

Tata launched the Tiago hatchback in April this year with petrol and diesel engine options at tempting entry-level prices. The Tiago has attracted a good number of footfalls at the showrooms with the car having received over 15,000 bookings in its near three-month stint in the market.

Earlier this year, we reported that Tata is working on an AMT-gearbox equipped Tiago hatchback to take on the Celerio AMT and the spy pictures confirm that testing of the Tiago AMT is well underway ahead of the market launch, which is likely to take place in September this year.

The AMT gearbox has been growing in popularity since it was originally introduced in 2014 with the Celerio AMT. The convenience of an automatic gearbox backed by mileage similar to a manual at a more affordable price to a conventional automatic has proved popular with buyers with more and more automakers introducing the gearbox in their models.

Under the hood, the Tiago will carry forward the same three-cylinder petrol engine developing 85hp, but the motor is now paired to a five-speed automated manual gearbox. Outright performance though isn’t likely to be as good as the manual with AMT-equipped variants expected to be anywhere between one to two seconds slower than their manual counterpart.

Tata Motors currently offers the AMT gearbox in the Nano and the Zest compact sedan with the Tiago becoming the third model to get the gearbox option. While the Nano gets AMT in the petrol avatar, the Tata Zest sedan gets it on the diesel variant. For the Tiago, the AMT gearbox will be seen on the petrol version first and the diesel-AMT Tiago will join in later making it the only car in the segment to offer a diesel-automatic combination.

For daily operations, the AMT gearbox is unlikely to be the smoothest unit out there, with AMT units typically offering a jerkier throttle progression as compared to traditional automatic units. On the plus side though, Tata is likely to equip the Tiago AMT with the crawl function seen on the Nano allowing the car to gradually accelerate from a standstill or not roll back on hills without the need to operate the accelerator.

Tata carmaker created shockwaves when it launched the Tiago with its Rs 3.2 lakh entry-level pricing and it can be safe to expect a similar strategy for the AMT Tiago as well. The Tiago will likely get the AMT option from the mid-XM trim onwards with prices expected to start at around Rs 4.50 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).