The Tata Indica is a 5-door hatchback from Tata Motors Ltd, built from 1998 to 2018, when airbags, anti-lock brakes and Japanese build quality became the world standard. Under the bonnet: 1.2-L I4. Justyn Norek at I.DE.A Institute drew it.
Where it came from
The Tata Indica (from "Indian Car") is a B-segment car launched by the Indian manufacturer Tata Motors in 1998. It was the first Indian hatchback with a diesel engine. It was the first passenger hatchback from Tata Motors, with previous models being station wagons and SUVs. As of August 2008, more than 910,000 units had been produced and the platform had spawned close to 1.2 million vehicles.
Annual sales of Indica were as high as 1,44,690 units in 2006–2007. As of July 2009, monthly sales of Indica were around 8,000 units. The models were also exported to European and African countries from late 2004. The car was discontinued in April 2018.
Under the skin
Power comes from 1.2-L I4; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It shifts through a 5-speed manual. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2400 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: its successor was the Tata Bolt / Tata Tiago; assembly was at Maharashtra, Pune, India. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Peugeot 206, the Chevrolet Silverado, the Ford Focus — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Tata Motors Ltd catalogue sit the TaMo Racemo and the Tata 407.