Tata Xenon BS-IV

February 20, 2020: Over the past few years, Tata Motors has rekindled its interest in the rapidly growing commercial Pickup Truck market in the country. At present, Tata offers a number of pickup models that cater to a wide variety of applications. The Tata Xenon Pickup was designed to cater to the more premium and niche commercial Pickup market as well as privately owned vehicle market. The Tata Xenon is available as a Crew Cab Pickup offering a feature-laden D+4 seating arrangement along with robust cargo space and also a single cab offering more cargo space and premium appeal.

Tata is also offering a choice to two separate diesel engines with the Tata Xenon as well - 3L engine or a 2.2L. In terms of features, the Tata Xenon is offered with AC and Non-Ac variants while you get power steering adjustable for tilt and telescopic reach while the driver seat is bucket reclining with high headrest. In terms of design, the Tata Xenon is among the best looking models in the Pickup trucks segment complete with premium SUV like styling. The major customer applications for the Tata Xenon are - transport, touring and adventure travel business, service support, forest, government departments & other captive usages where both, movement of goods and crew is required. It is also offered in a choice of either a 4X2 or a more rugged 4X4 variant. The Tata Xenon Crew Cab with 2.2L Dicor engine has a maximum permissible GVW of 2800kg and a kerb weight of 1900kg. This variant offers a rated maximum payload of 900kg (1030kg for 3.0L variant). The loading dimension for both variants is similar at - 4.7 ft x 4.6 ft.

At the heart of the Tata Xenon Crew Cab is the more powerful 2179cc 4 Cylinder  BSIV compliant Tata 2.2L DICOR diesel engine. The maximum power output from this engine is 140bhp made at just 4000rpm and a rated peak torque of 320Nm comes in the low 1700-2700rpm range. A Tata GBS76 - 5/4.1 Synchromesh 5-Speed manual gearbox with overdrive gear takes care of transmission duties and it comes mated to a 240mm Single Plate dry Friction type clutch. The Tata Xenon Crew Cab offers a Gradeability of 32% for the 4X2 variant while a staggering 70% for the 4x4 variant and it has a limited top speed of 80kmph. The fuel tank capacity for the Crew Cab variant is 65 liters. Braking is taken care by hydraulic discs at the front and hydraulic drum brakes at the rear while ABS is offered as standard.

Overview

The market for pick-up trucks in India is quite small in comparison to South Africa and Europe. The famous manufacturers like Mitsubishi, Toyota, Nissan, Isuzu have been dominating in this segment for several years. However, the homegrown manufacturer, Tata launched Xenon, a decent pickup truck back in 2009. With the Xenon, Tata had taken a step, to become as successful as these manufacturers.

The Tata Xenon is equipped with a great engine under the hood. Moreover, it has a lot of convenient features inside the cabin. The safety features along with braking are also up to the mark in its kind.

Below, some of the highlighting specifications of the Tata Xenon pickup truck have been mentioned, which will help you to have a clear idea about it.

Specs

Engine - TATA Dicor, 2.2-litre BS IV engine

Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) - 2,800 kg

Wheelbase - 3,150 mm

Power steering - Yes

Engine and Performance

The Tata Xenon is one of the best offerings with a powerful engine in Tata’s pickup segment. It comes with a 2.2-litre, BS-IV compliant engine, which offers a decent performance. It can provide a maximum of 136.1 hp power and the peak torque sticks at a 320 Nm. The maximum power comes at 4,000 rpm, while on the other hand, the peak torque arrives at a range of 1,700 to 2,700 rpm.

The transmission duties of the vehicle are taken care of by a 5-speed manual gearbox with the help of the 240 mm single plate dry friction type clutch. The truck can speed up a maximum of 80 kmph.

Vehicle Built and Load Capacity

The Tata Xenon comes with a deck body at the back, which helps it to load the cargos. And up front, there is a day cabin built on the chassis. Inside the cabin, there is seating space for five people including the driver.

The length of the truck is 5,125 mm, and it has a width of 1,860 mm. Along with this, the height of the vehicles comes at around 1,765 mm. The pickup truck comes with a gross vehicle weight of 2,800 kilograms in which the kerb weight is 1,900 kg and the payload capacity is 900 kg. It has a wheelbase of 3,150 mm and has a fuel tank of 65 litres.

Handling and Suspension

The Tata Xenon offers a good handling, it can be used for highways as well as on urban roads. It has a decent turning radius of 6,000 mm. However, there will be not so much hassle while taking a U-turn even on short roads or cities. Also, changing the lanes in highways will not be a major problem. It has a power steering and the throttle response is quite good.

The ground clearance of the truck is decent with 200 mm. The driver can freely drive on the bad terrains without having a headache of damaging the car. The off-road gradability is excellent with 41%. So, the full-loaded pickup can climb any bridge easily.

Coming to the suspension, there is a double wishbone type with torsion bar up front axle and at the rear, there are parabolic leaf springs also. Both of the setups provide the much-required comfort while going on the long drive.

Braking and Safety

Speaking of the braking, the Tata Xenon comes with Hydraulic twin pot disc brakes at the front axle and at the rear axle it comes with drum brakes. Both the brakes are quite efficient to stop the pickup at high speeds.

Moving on to the safety features, the Tata Xenon has parking brakes that can enhance the convenience while parking in the hilly areas. However, the vehicle does not have ABS, which is one of the drawbacks of the vehicle. But, having a top speed of only 80 kmph, the pickup has a decent setup of brakes to stop it. Also, the pickup comes with seat belts for the driver and co-driver. The fog-lights are also added in its long list of safety features.

Design and Comfort

The Tata Xenon gives you the luxury of having international styling on the Indian roads. It gets a body colour front bumper along with the Motorised headlamps. The deck body gets an excellent styling. It is equipped with the wheel caps as standard and the loading deck is large enough to make it an appropriate choice in this segment.

Inside the cabin, there are bucket seats with headrest, a lumbar support and the mobile charging port is also provided. As earlier mentioned, the pickup truck has a power steering with a tiltable column. There is also an adjustable driver seat and arm-rest.