The petrol and diesel price hikes in the last few years have led car buyers to look at other options including CNG. Hence, the CNG segment is witnessing steep growth. Subsequently, Tata Motors has smartly chosen two models — Tiago and Tigor, to be offered with factory-fitted CNG. We recently drove the Tigor compact sedan and here are the pictures from its first drive.
Design-wise, it's the same but the carmaker has added a new electric red colour and a small 'CNG' badge to differentiate it from the regular petrol compact sedan.
Look closely, and you'll see this one rides on 14-inch steel wheels with wheel covers. On the other hand, the top-spec petrol version on which it is based gets 15-inch alloys.
Inside, the design and layout are pretty much the same with just the addition of a CNG button on the dashboard and an additional CNG fuel gauge in the instrument cluster itself.
Even the second row is unchanged with the same backrest angle for the seat. Even the space remains unaffected as no alterations have been made to accommodate the CNG kit.
That said, the incorporation of the CNG kit in the boot has eaten up some space. But since this is a sedan, there's still some space to put in your bags.
This newly launched Tigor CNG is powered by the same 1.2-litre Revotron petrol engine that comes in the standard vehicles but has been re-tuned to support the CNG fuelling.
On the transmission front, it is mated to a five-speed manual gearbox. It's the same even in the Tiago hatchback and this Tata duo are rated at 73bhp of power and 95Nm of torque.
Yes, the power output is slightly lower than the conventionally fuelled cars. Still, the car will add up to 300km of range as claimed by Tata Motors with the mileage at 26.49km/kg.
Another advantage for owners is that it's covered by safety checks assured by Tata and these i-CNG cars also come with a seamless shifting of fuel modes from petrol to CNG and vice-versa.
There are three variants of Tigor i-CNG, and are priced at Rs 7.69 lakh for the entry-level trim, Rs 8.29 lakh for the mid-spec, and Rs 8.41 lakh for the top-of-the-line version boasting quite a lot of equipment.
