That’s right, Tata is back! After an almost seven-year hiatus, DRB-Hicom Commercial Vehicles (formerly USF-Hicom) has revived the Indian brand in Malaysia, with a distinct commercial focus.
Unveiled at an event yesterday was the Tata Xenon pick-up truck. The Telcoline successor is not officially on sale yet in Malaysia, but a RM60k-80k estimated price range was revealed at the press conference, with official prices set to be announced next month.
Six fully-imported-from-Thailand (CBU) variants will be available for commercial use, all of which have a 2.2 litre DICOR turbodiesel four-cylinder engine and a five-speed manual gearbox.
The motor, featuring common-rail direct injection and variable-geometry turbocharging, develops 140 PS at 4,000 rpm and 320 Nm of torque between 1,700 and 2,700 rpm.
Common to all variants are a 3,150 mm wheelbase, ABS, EBD, power steering, power windows (auto down for driver) and rear fog lamps. Airbags are not fitted, but they aren’t required for commercial vehicles in Malaysia yet – we’re told the private-use Xenon, with the required safety features (and hopefully more kit!), could be introduced at a later juncture.
Brakes are a front-disc, rear-drum affair, and suspension is handled by double wishbones up front and leaf springs (semi-elliptical for Single Cab, parabolic for the rest) out back.
We’ll start with the Single Cab, of which 4×2 and 4×4 variants will be available. The Single Cab features a 2.5 m x 1.72 m x 0.382 m steel flat-bed with drop sides that can carry up to 1.2 tonnes. The front grille, bumpers, wing mirrors and exterior door handles are unpainted black, and the wheels are 16-inch capped steel items wrapped in 215/75 series tubeless tyres.
Next is the Space Cab, of which only one 4×2 variant will be available. Due to the longer cab, its flat-bed is 450 mm shorter than the Single Cab’s. Apart from that, it is identically-equipped to the Single Cab.
The Double Cab is available in 4×2 Standard, 4×4 Basic and 4×4 Premium variants. The 4×4 Basic gets a chrome grille, body-coloured bumpers, body-coloured LED indicator wing mirrors, an aluminium underguard, a rear step bumper and 16-inch alloys shod in all-terrain 235/70 series rubber.
As far as we can tell, the 4×2 Standard and 4×4 Premium Double Cab variants differ only in their drive configurations. They get all the 4×4 Basic has, plus front fog lamps, a bedliner and aluminium side steps. White, black and silver body colours are available, as is a two-year/40,000 km warranty.
Also available is the Tata Prima prime mover – the huge tractor unit is offered in 4038.S 4×2 and 4938.S 6×4 versions. Providing drive is a 370 hp/1,550 Nm 8.8 litre Cummins ISLe 375 diesel engine and a nine-speed Eaton-FSO manual gearbox.
Prices were revealed to be RM270k for the 4×2 and RM320k for the 6×4, and we’re told 17 confirmed orders for the prime mover have been received to date.
Over the next few years, Tata and DHCV are set to enter Malaysia’s commercial vehicle market in a big way – first, they plan to locally-assemble (CKD) the Tata Ultra light truck in Pekan next year and possibly export it to other ASEAN markets.
In future, all commercial segments will be penetrated, including pick-up, light-, medium- and heavy-trucks, prime movers and buses. We understand that there are no plans to venture into passenger vehicles for now, so put aside those Nano dreams.
As for after-sales, over RM10 million will be spent on a new 3S centre in Selayang (with technical support from Tata) as well as to expand the dealer network from the current nine to 21 dealers nationwide in the next couple of years. Presently, there are three dealers in the Klang Valley, three in Johor, one in Perak, one in Negeri Sembilan and one in Sabah.
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Prima looks way better than Xenon lol.
Malu lah. All batang posing here. Got no girl ah to pose with the car.
yuuuks
Wow..it’s Tata Optimus Prime!!!
1550NM of torque & 9 speed manual sounds sweet. Can your Veyron beat that? And the Prime Mover looks good too.
At the prices they are quoting, there is a market for their vehicles…
Indeed.
The market has been missing a proper commercial truck. A 4×2, Single cab 8′ bed with a decent engine…not some underpowered shit lke the Triton Lite Turbo.
it would be a builder’s favourite. Especially at 60k.
As I was growing up in Pekan, I often see naked TATA truck (bare chassis and engine without body panel) driven by a driver wearing a helmet. I guess the body was assembled elsewhere and that’s how they transported it. Those days most lori balak are TATA trucks.
wow 1550nm torque. can do burnout or not?
quite disapointed tata still relying on us engines, expected them to be able to design and build own tata 370hp lorry engine after all these years, I suppose we can fit that engine in a halfcut proton tiara body and get some serious acceleration…
at least this brand are proven more reliable compared to china made brand
Going up against Scania, Volvo truck. Not to mention many Chinese too. Good luck Tata!
Pickup truck dash board felt like got nemonia Dats y so shrink n pale.showing truly Indian touch.big No.prime movers r OK to consider who needs dat
Lets all buy Tata Prima with it’s 370 hp/1,550 Nm 8.8 litre engine! Can mod become Optimus Prime!
Aww why no pics of the Prime interior? It’s not everyday that paultan.org gets to cover heavy truck news….
TATA is a good brand for commercial car. The truck is awesome. It used cummins engine which is a well known diesel engine manufacturer especially for power generation and one of the company listed in fortune 500.
Start from RM 270K, I think it is a good buy compare to a used Volvo FH series which cost RM 400K.
China truck also not bad especially FOTON which under licensed by Mercedes Benz.
And yes, if the spare parts are readily available and reliable, why not Tata ??
The only thing is. Tata diesel engine are very noisy compare to Scania or volvo. This is for sure! They are plenty of Tata bus in middle east.
RM400k overpriced la wei for used truck. It should be around RM200k+- depending on age, mileage, etc.
Yes, it is the price for used truck market imported from europe. Volvo FH13 will cost you nothing less than RM 350K for a 3 years old truck. We are not talking about the high end Volvo FH16 yet.
The reliability of European trucks are proven in their motorway. Scania,Iveco,MAN,DAF,Mercedes Benz are among the popular brand.
Even now, after more than 20 years in service, you will see Mercedes Benz 911 series still running and climbing slowly in any of the Karak, changkat jering highway. This prove how reliable they build.
:O
A logistics company i know bought a 2008 Scania in 2011 for rm200k, u gotta be kidding me an equivalent 3 year old Volvo costs nearly 2 Scanias.
A check on mudah also shows Volvo FH costs much less. Even after fabrication cost to make it ready for use, it’s expensive indeed.
But Volvos are pretty tough too. In Klang, those old FL10 are still running faultlessly.
Yeah…the price they set for tata prima is toooo high …bcz man tga offer for oni 350k. For sure tata cnt bet the tga for its ride. I prefer eroupe trucks…volvo scania man are good master piece for their price.
beribu ribu tahniah MIC berjaya
Tata Prima is kinda good looking truck. It resemble MAN and Iveco truck a lot.
Regardless of the performance and reliability, the truck is definitely a handsome-looking truck!
So tata xenon doesnt come with xenon lights?!
Epic irony!
For that price…TATA Prime 4×2 or Toyota Camry facelift? hmm……
Tata Xenon looks like a Hilux copycat…
The pickup powerplant has been around for some time so reliability should be there.
The prime mover could outsell the pickup as china prime mover is well accepted by local operator.Its getting hard for me to see Scania or Volvo picking up stuff at CIMA factory.guess the Cummins engine is the selling point.
looking smart that prima truck..
What a good looking truck….Tata is known for its reliability. True workhorse. Remember seeing the bit T logo on lorries in the 80s and 90s..
is it possible to parallel import a tata nano into mesia ourselves since no one is bothering to sell it here?
TATA lpt507/31 GEARBOX