Tata Motors to launch new smaller “Ace”

Tata Motors said it is planning to launch a light commercial vehicle in the Indian market sometime soon.

“We are looking at launching a sub-one-tonne carrier quite seriously,” Tata Motors India Operations Managing Director P.M. Telang said. However, he did not give any specifics of the launch.

Telang said the current production capacity of Tata’s manufacturing plant is running at 65 percent. Regarding sales in the fiscal year as well as in the upcoming festive season, Telang said: “We are cautiously optimistic on sales.”

This is the smaller version of the version of the Ace and is christened “Penguin”. It will be even smaller then Ace, with a payload capacity of around 0.5 tonne. The Penguin will be produced at the company’s Pantnagar facility in Uttarakhand, where it also manufactures the Ace trucks. There are plans to make 40,000 units