Tata Motors showcases midsize SUV concept

Tata Motors showcased a midsize SUV concept, the Curvv, which it said will be introduced in production-ready form by 2024. The company plans to first launch an EV version followed by an  internal combustion engine (ICE) powertrain options.

The concept will likely underpin 10 EV that the company plans as part of its EV portfolio by 2025. It currently has three including the Nexon, which is the country’s leading EV brand.  Tata Motors said it was on track to bring in these new SUVs

The SUV-based on the Curvv is expected to take on the likes of the Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos and MG Astor – all contenders of a segment – seeing buoyant demand in the country.

The Tata Curvv boasts a unique coupe design in an SUV form, making the company adopt a new design philosophy – ‘Digital’ – for its future models based on this midsize concept. The Curvv will sit between the Nexon and Harrier in the Tata Motors product portfolio, and will target customers looking at an appealing mid- to high-size SUV.

The company also announced that an EV based on the Curvv concept will make it first to the market in 2024, followed by its ICE derivatives. “With the Curvv concept, we are taking the next big leap in making EVs aspirational,” said Shailesh Chandra, MD, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, at the unveil event.

Tata Motors ended FY22 with close to 30,000 SUVs its highest ever in a single calendar year. Sales for the entire fiscal were 370,372 units, 67 percent higher than in 2021.

Curvv credentials

Design attributes on the Curvv concept include full-length LED lightbar upfront, squared-off wheel arches, a coupe-styled sloping roofline and body cladding for rugged appeal. The cabin will have a slew of  modern features too, like dual floating screens for infotainment and instrumentation. According to Martin Uhlarik, Tata’s head of global design, “A lot of design elements on the Curvv are centred around aerodynamic efficiency, and will make their way into the production model as well.”

While it hasn’t revealed powertrain specifications, Tata Motors is eyeing up to 500km of certified driving range with the second-generation EV architecture that debuts on the Curvv. “The Generation-2 platform will be able to accommodate bigger batteries, and therefore, will try to break the consumer barrier of range anxiety with EV adoption,” Chandra said.

The new SUV is also expected to be loaded to the gills with connected car technology with telematics-based convenience features as well as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-load (V2L) charging solutions, which in case of the latter, will allow an external appliance to be powered from the charge in the EV’s battery.

With EVs comprising 5 percent of Tata Motors’ FY2022 sales, and with 19,106 units sold, Tata Motors is bullish about taking a lead in the passenger EV segment as it is poised to mature and grow in the coming future. “It is our vision as a company to be ahead of the curve in the EV space, and that is what inspired the name of this new concept,” says Vivek Srivatsa, head, Marketing, Sales and Service Strategy, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility