India’s workhorse: Tata Xenon pickup

THE XENON is a four-door, five-passenger extended-cab light truck that comes in 4×2 and 4×4 guise.

SIMPLE joys inside the cockpit of a car designed as a work vehicle

Tata Motors may be relatively new to the Philippines, having been launched just this year at the Manila International Auto Show. But its history as a manufacturer stretches back to 1945, and it produced its first commercial road vehicle in 1954, in collaboration with Daimler-Benz. A leader in its home market in India, Tata has been steadily growing together with its international presence and reputation.

The company made waves with arguably its most famous product, the Nano microcar. Billed as the world’s most affordable car, the Nano was priced at 100,000 rupees  ($2,000) at its launch.  The car has so far met with limited success. Next, it snapped up the British car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from erstwhile parent company Ford. The two brands are currently flourishing under Tata ownership, with investments in new platforms and technology paying off.

For the Philippines, Tata is starting off where it knows best—with a lineup of utility vehicles and small passenger cars. At the heart of the utility vehicle lineup is the     Xenon pickup truck. The Xenon is a four-door, five-passenger extended-cab light truck that comes in 4×2 and 4×4 guise. Large headlamps and standard foglamps are combined with flared arches and 16-inch wheels.

Common to both variants is the 2.2-liter direct-injection common-rail turbodiesel engine dubbed “Dicor.” The engine uses a 32-bit computer and generates 138 horsepower at 4,000 revolutions per minute and peak torque of 320 Newton-meters from 1,700-2,700 rpm. Shifting is manual only, with a large floor-mounted lever moving five forward gears.

THE 2.2-LITER direct-injection common-rail turbodiesel engine

While many pickups lately have been morphing into a mix of utility vehicle and leisure craft, the Xenon remains firmly a work vehicle. With the 1,430 millimeters x 1,410 mm load bed able to carry 260 kilograms, the Tata Xenon is also capable of towing 1,800 kg for the 4×2 or 2,200 kg for the 4×4 model. Front suspension is via double wishbones, while the rear uses leaf springs.

The interior would leave little doubt that you’re in a vehicle meant for carrying cargo. There’s a single-DIN radio and air-conditioning, but the instrument panel carries just the basics. The hard, very dark gray plastic surfaces and cloth trim would be easy to scrub clean after coming into contact with dirt and grime. The Xenon is more for work expeditions, and it’s not exactly as comfortable as a car.

Some concessions to comfort include power windows and mirrors, remote central locking, power-aim for the headlamps and power steering with tilt column. ABS and dual airbags are standard on the 4×4, as is a limited-slip differential.

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of scope for customization within the Xenon platform. The 4×4 includes accessories like the metal stepboard, a necessity given the pickup’s tall seating, but the rest of the car is quite basic.

Nicky Mariano, general manager of Tata distributor Pilipinas TAJ Autogroup, reckons that the Xenon offers good value in the pickup market. The Xenon 4×2 DLS slots in at P805,000, while the 4×4 DLE is priced at P1.125 million.