Tata’s new ‘Falcon’ cars will debut at the Auto Expo; upcoming Indica Vista spied testing on video

A new hatchback and a new compact saloon from Tata will be displayed at the 2014 Auto Expo in February. The new hatchback is expected to replace the current Vista and the sub-four-metre saloon is likely to replace the Manza reports Autocar.

Tata has been working hard to bring out a totally different car than what their current line-up holds. With their ‘Project Falcon’ they have come up with two new cars and a new petrol engine variant. Apparently, the car designers have been working on a completely new design for the upcoming cars and they do not bear much resemblance with the existing cars.

The car that is set to replace the Vista is a hatchback codenamed ‘Falcon4’. It has been newly styled at the automaker’s design studio at Europe and will be made available in both diesel as well as petrol options. The new petrol engine would most likely be 1.2-litre turbo charged, similar to the present Xeta engine. The oil-burner would remain the same 1.3-litre multi-jet diesel engine from Fiat.

The compact saloon ‘Falcon5’ is based on Tata’s existing X1 platform. However it would be less than four metres and will add to the compact car segment in the Tata car line-up. This car will again be powered by the same 1.3-litre diesel engine but it is also that there will be a more powerful turbo-charged petrol version.

Tata Motors will reveal both these cars at the Auto Expo scheduled February 2014 and are expected to be launched by end of next year. However, the saloon which will compete with entry-level compact cars like Honda Amaze and Maruti Suzuki Swift DZire, will be launched a few months earlier than the hatchback.

In more exciting news, we spotted the Facelifted Tata Indica Vista testing and it has been caught for the first time on video. The hatchback has been a strong seller for the Indian automaker and it appears that the Indica Vista will also join their refreshed line-up soon. It is also expected that once the Vista has been refreshed, the Manza too will get a facelift.

Now with word of this programme hitting the interweb, we believe that there are two possibilities emerging for the car captured in the pictures and video. Firstly, this may be the new hatchback from Tata that is based on their existing X1 platform which will make its debut at the Auto Expo and is likely to be launched at the end of next year.

The second possibility is also that the car in the video and pictures is actually a facelifted Vista that will be launched by the end of the year and will be a stop-gap arrangement before the new car from Project Falcon is launched.