India's third largest carmaker, Tata Engineering and Locomotive, launched a sedan version of its lone car model on Wednesday and priced it below its competitors in a bid to grab market share.
Telco, also India's largest truck and bus maker, said in a statement the base petrol version of its Indigo sedan will carry a showroom price of Rs 435,000 in Delhi while the top end diesel model carries a tag of Rs 520,000.
That price is about Rs 40,000 cheaper than any other model in the mid-size car segment, which includes Hyundai's Accent, Ford's Ikon, Maruti's Esteem, General Motors' Opel Corsa and Fiat's Siena.
The mid-size car segment, where Telco makes its entry with the Indigo, contributes 17 per cent of India's nearly 600,000-a-year new car sales.
The automaker, part of India's second largest business conglomerate, the Tata group, had unveiled five versions of the model on Monday -- three with an 85-brake horsepower petrol engine and two with a 62-bhp turbo-diesel power train.
The Indigo is built on the Indica platform, India's first homegrown car developed entirely by Telco, which has a 23-per cent share in the premium hatchback segment.
Launched in February 1999, the car competes with models made by the local units of Suzuki Motor Corp, Hyundai and Fiat.
The success of its launch, partly due to attractive pricing, forced market leader Maruti Udyog, a unit of Suzuki, to lower its own prices.