Tata Motors senior vice-president Rajiv Dube (right) and executive director V. Sumantran in New Delhi on Wednesday. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

New Delhi, Aug. 3: Tata Motors today launched Safari Dicor, a sports utility vehicle fitted with the common rail direct injection (CRDi) diesel engine.

The company is planning to subsequently introduce this engine in other models as well.

“Like other manufacturers, we have plans of upgrading our products. In future, other models will also have the CRDi engine”, said V. Sumantran, executive director (passenger car business unit) at Tata Motors.

The Safari, which was introduced in 1998, has become the first Tata model to have the CRDi engine.

Safari Dicor sports a price tag between Rs 7.83 lakh and 12.70 lakh, ex-showroom, Delhi.

At present, Tata Motors sells 250-300 Safari every month. The new version is expected to increase sales by 25 per cent, Sumantran said.

It will be available in seven colours ? light gold, arizona blue, quartz black, arctic silver, passion red, arctic white and river rock green. Safari Dicor conforms to the Bharat Stage III norms and comes with an 18-month unlimited kilometre guarantee.

Although, the company’s passenger vehicle sales grew 27.9 per cent last fiscal at 1,79,076 units, it expects the growth rate to drop to a single digit this year.

The company attributes this slowdown to the recent floods in Maharashtra and Orissa and a higher than expected sales last year.

Besides, firming up of interest rates and fuel price hikes are also contributing to the deceleration.

“We expect to at least match the industry, which is expected to clock an 8 per cent growth this fiscal,” said Rajiv Dube, senior vice-president, Tata Motors.

“We were running close to capacity last fiscal, but not this year. In fact, the capacity has been increased from 1,50,000 to 2,25,000 vehicles per year,” he added.

Tata Motors’s Indica, Indigo, Indigo Marina and Sumo are some of the popular models.

The new Safari Dicor will compete with Ford’s Endeavor, Hyundai’s Terracan and Tuscon, Maruti’s Grand Vitara and Toyota’s Prado Landcruiser.

Tata Motors will introduce a new Indigo variant later this year. Some variants of Indica are also expected to hit the market before the end of the fiscal, Dube said.

The company has reported an 8.6 per cent rise in revenue at Rs 3,878.1 crore for the quarter ended June 30, compared with Rs 3,572.1 crore in the corresponding previous period.

Net profit increased 22.1 per cent to Rs 272.67 crore.

Tata Motors enjoys a 60 per cent market share in commercial vehicles and 17 per cent in passenger cars.