Everyone is excited about this car. Everyone wants to know the timeline of this car.
See, from December 16 we will start taking bookings formally, and mid-January, meaning January 15th, we will start deliveries as well.
There's talk of pollution everywhere. So this question also comes to people's minds, Shailesh ji, that why ICE first and not the EV?
EV is an industry with its own dynamics. Keeping that in mind, we time any launch. The Sierra EV, we will bring it in the first half of the next financial year, so if it starts appearing more on the roads by then, popularity will increase further.
So popularity will increase further. Many cars, if I'm not wrong, that was also a figure you mentioned that you are going to launch in the coming time.
This is now our eighth car, understand. Nameplates, besides this, two more nameplates we have in mind for ICE, and two additional nameplates in our EV, and Avinya, you know about that. So all of this, you can think of it for the future.
So there's a new engine option also that has been added to this. What do you think, you know, because we haven't driven the vehicle, right?
No, I have already driven it. That's why... It was a big strategy for us. Earlier we used to be in small cars with 1.2-liter engines. But now the direction we see in the market and the customer preference we see, people are moving towards bigger cars which needed 1.35-liter petrol. We are bringing a four-cylinder 1.5-liter petrol in naturally aspirated form — for those who want fuel efficiency and a lower price, they can take that option, and those who want a bit more performance, more refinement, can go for the GDI.
Yes, this whole year, there was one car that continuously made headlines, kept being in the news, and now finally that wait is over. That car has come on Indian roads. It has been launched. I'm talking about Tata's Sierra, and we keep saying the legend is back. The legend is back. The legend is back, and there is a reason. To talk more about the biggest news at this time, with us is Shailesh Chandra ji, MD & CEO, Tata Motors. Shailesh ji, thank you very much for taking the time.
With an introductory price of 11.49 lakh, this car has been launched. Quite good colors, safety — when you showed the car-to-car test, all these things, see, goosebumps — this tells us that Tata always sets a new benchmark. The Sierra is also a benchmark that has been set. But one question that kept coming back to my mind for so many days was what was that thing or what was that trigger that inspired you or the team that this is the right time for Sierra's return.
Correct. See, as you yourself mentioned, it's a legend. This has been an iconic car. In the 90s, when people like us were growing up, it was everyone's dream to one day have a car like the Sierra. And I was seeing for four-five years, we also kept getting emails that you people should revive the Sierra. So it was clearly visible that on one hand, the Generation X people who wanted this car had a desire that we should bring this car. But if we reimagine an icon, we would want to keep it relevant for current times.
We felt that the mid-size SUV, the cars you see around 4.3 meters, at that price point the Sierra was approximately this size at that time. So we felt that now when there's significant growth in this segment and the size is also going to increase, and we have an iconic design, so taking its resemblance, if we bring a Sierra-like silhouette and make it very modern from inside, make it like a living space — if we recreate it like a living space, the way it used to be, if you sat in the back seat of the original Sierra, you used to get that feeling. So we felt there's a very sweet spot in the market where we were not present anyway, and if we bring Sierra into that, we would enter a very large segment and bring an iconic product.
So the thinking was how to keep the resemblance of the icon but make it so modern that the youth, the Gen Z, can relate to it more. Because of the icon, Gen X, our generation, will also want it. But for Gen Y and Gen Z, if you look at its tech stack — the tech stack is something you don't see in this segment. Whether it's 5G connectivity, or end-to-end triple-screen infotainment, or AR head-up display, Dolby Atmos — you're seeing a full theater experience to a living room experience. So that was the thinking, that we launch this car at the right time in the premium mid-size SUV segment.
Because there's talk of pollution everywhere, and Tata had perhaps made EV a household topic. So this question also comes to people's minds, Shailesh ji, that why ICE first and not the EV?
No, there's no hard and fast rule for us that I'll bring ICE first or EV. EV is an industry with its own dynamics. Keeping that in mind, we time any launch. With this product, we saw that the mid-size SUV segment has such a large industry, so why don't we first bring a product in ICE so that Sierra's visibility increases well. And the more Sierra's visibility increases, it will have a positive rub-off on the EVs. So that was the reason. And the Sierra EV, we will bring it in the first half of the next financial year, so if it starts appearing more on the roads by then, popularity will increase further.
Everyone is excited about this car. Everyone wants to know the timeline of this car — from when these cars will be open for booking, when they will reach showrooms, and when they can reach people's homes. If you could also tell the viewers by what time we will get this car?
