Tata Motors working on an automatic transmission for the Aria Crossover?

The introduction of the cut price 2 wheel drive variant of the Tata Aria boosted sales almost two fold and in the coming times, an automatic gearbox could be another offering on the Tata Aria’s variant line up. The folks at CarWale report that they have information about Tata Motors testing an automatic gearbox for the Tata Aria. According to them, the automatic gearbox is being developed by Tata Motors in conjunction with Jaguar-Land Rover and has already undergone tests of around 3,000-4,000 Kms in the United Kingdom.

Tata Aria Crossover

The only SUVs priced under INR 20 Lakh equipped with an automatic gearbox are the Mahindra Scorpio, the Ford Endeavour and the Chevrolet Captiva. Soon the Mahindra XUV500 is also expected to usher in an automatic gearbox as Mahindra engineers have already been working on an automatic gearbox option for the XUV500 for a while now. The arrival of the Tata Aria Automatic would thus add much more competition in this segment as the prospective sub 20 Lakh Rupee SUV buyer would get a lot more choice in the market.

Tata Aria Crossover

Another good thing, though far fetched at the moment, is that the automatic gearbox for the Aria would result in is that the other cars in Tata’s line up using the 2.2 Liter DICOR diesel engine could also get the benefit of the automatic gearbox. For instance, the Tata Merlin, which will sit just above the Tata Safari could get this same gearbox, thus giving it enough ammo to take on the XUV500 SUV. The addition of the automatic gearbox on the Aria could make it expensive by INR 1 Lakh or so and it would be interesting to see how Tata Motors manages to position the Aria at the higher price levels.

Via CarWale