While Indian traffic police largely relies on Toyota Innovas and Maruti Suzuki Ertigas as the traffic interceptors, the Tata Nexon could be a worthy replacement
The Tata Nexon is considered one of the safest cars that is currently sold in the Indian market, and when coupled with its extensive feature list and striking design; makes it a popular choice among Indians. The sub-4m SUV received a mid-life refresh earlier this year, which brought along a completely redesigned front-end, and a couple of new features with it.
A prototype of the 2020 Tata Nexon has been digitally imagined as a police interceptor car, and hence has been customised accordingly. For starters, the car has been rendered in both white and black paint schemes with ‘Police Interceptor’ written on its doors. A bull bar has been added to the front of the car, which offers additional protection.
Apart from that, a small LED flood light has been mounted on the car’s wing mirror, while a red and blue police beacon has been placed on the top of the car’s hood. Small red-blue LED lights can also be seen on the car’s bull bar. As of now, majority of the interceptor cars used by traffic police in India are Toyota Innovas and Maruti Suzuki Ertigas.
Tata offers the Nexon in India with a 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine and a 1.5-litre oil burner. The petrol engine puts out 120 PS of maximum power along with 170 Nm of peak torque, while the diesel engine is rated at 110 PS/260 Nm. The transmission duties are handled by a 6-speed manual gearbox, and an optional 6-speed AMT.
The Nexon comes equipped with features like an electric sunroof, automatic projector headlamps with LED DRLs, rain-sensing wipers, cruise control, a 7-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, iRA connected car-tech, a tyre pressure monitoring system, automatic climate control, a digital instrument cluster and a flat-bottom steering wheel.
The Nexon is currently priced between Rs 6.95 lakh and Rs 12.7 lakh (ex-showroom), and goes up against the Mahindra XUV300, Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Ford EcoSport and the Hyundai Venue in the Indian market.