While adding four new variants to Nexon, Tata has discontinued the XZ petrol MT variant
Tata Nexon has been the highest-selling SUV in the country as seen in top 25 cars list. Even the Creta sales are below Nexon’s which shows just how popular this sub-4-meter SUV is. It sold 14,295 units in June 2022 making it the highest-selling sub-4-meter SUV too. To add more praise, it is also Tata Motors’ highest-selling vehicle.
Tata Motors offered Nexon SUV in 59 different variants and now has discontinued one variant and added 4 more taking the total to 62. Yeah, 62! If there was a competition for the most number of variants in India, Nexon would just annihilate the rest, hands down. Avg price difference of each variant is about Rs 25k.
Tata Nexon XM+ (S) Variant
Tata Motors has introduced a brand new trim called XM+ (S) and it gets both manual and automatic options with both petrol and diesel options too. In effect, the four new variants added to Nexon’s already crowded variant lineup are XM+ (S) Petrol MT, XMA+ (S) Petrol AT, XM+ (S) Diesel MT and lastly, XMA+ Diesel AT. These variants cost Rs. 55,000 (ex-sh) over the XM (S) and XMA (S) trims.
This new XM+ (S) trim will sit between XM (S) and XZ+ trims. Before you’re wondering where XZ trim went, XZ trim was discontinued with diesel MT and AT and petrol AT trims long back and with the addition of XM+ (S), Tata has now discontinued the XZ Petrol MT variant too.
Before you ask, (S) in XM+ (S) means a sunroof. With the new XM+ (S) variant, Tata Motors has also provided a 7” touchscreen floating infotainment screen with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a four-speaker system, rain-sensing wipers, automatic headlights, digital instrument cluster, multi-drive modes, 12V rear charging socket and a shark-fin antenna. Other prominent functional features include a cooled glove box and rear AC vents too.
We think that the new XM+ (S) trim will be the perfect choice for buyers looking for new-age features like a sunroof and 7” touchscreen with smartphone integration along with useful features like rear AC vents, drive modes and a cooled glovebox. Except for sunroof, auto headlights and rain-sensing wipers, most of these additions were missing on the XM (S) trim.
Pricing & Competition
Tata Motors has a strong reason why this new trim was formulated. Even though Nexon currently dominates the sales charts of sub-4-metre SUVs, there are new entrants coming that are sure to eat into Nexon’s pie. We’re talking about the newly launched Hyundai Venue, Maruti Suzuki Brezza and upcoming Toyota Urban Cruiser.
A new product generally creates more buzz than a solid product and hence to keep the competition in check, Tata has hand-picked the trendy features and created this new XM+ (S) trim to offer these features at an attractive price point over the rivals. This is Tata’s tried and tested strategy as we saw with XM (S) trim. As Tata Motors don’t have any new product launches, this strategy will bring in a lot more buyers.
In terms of pricing, Tata Nexon XM+ (S) Petrol MT costs Rs. 9.75 lakhs, XMA+ (S) Petrol AT costs Rs. 10.40 lakhs, XM+ (S) Diesel MT costs Rs. 11.05 lakhs and XMA+ (S) Diesel AT costs Rs. 11.70 lakhs (all prices ex-sh). Tata Nexon competes with Kia Sonet, Mahindra XUV300, newly launched Hyundai Venue, Maruti Suzuki Brezza and upcoming Toyota Urban Cruiser.
