Tata Motors Design Studio Visit

The Design department is one of the highly guarded sections for any manufacturer, be it any industry. It is the department which works on the next product line, which, in the case of a car manufacturer like Tata Motors, are the future models. This department is basically involved in the development of the exteriors as well as the interiors of a road vehicle. It is also responsible for the ergonomics to make the car more comfortable for the user. How many of us have got a chance to experience this journey from paper to metal? Not many, I suppose. ZigWheels has received an opportunity to get to know what happens inside such departments at Tata Motor's plant in Pune.

Tata Motors Limited had its design studio as a part of its body engineering department till 1994. Since that year, the company has formed an independent Design Studio which formally consisted of only four designers. In the coming time, the company had formed studios in Italy in 2006 and UK in 2007. The design team of all the three locations is directed by Pratap Bose, Head of Design, Tata Motors. Now, the team now comprises of over 190 designers, representing eight different nationalities. The Pune facility has expertise in handling exteriors and interiors colours, material, textures and trims. It also has the capacity to develop full-sized models of cars. The Italian studio houses some of the most creative engineers and craftsmen and its Italian flair can be observed in the modern designs of Tata cars. The three design studios have been jointly involved in the bringing out of the recently launched Tiago. Being led by the Design Studio in India, the team had received creative inputs from the European studios.

The Tata Tiago is the first car by the company to be developed under the IMPACT design language. The new design language is a harbinger of the next generation passenger vehicle to roll out of the Tata assembly line.

The exteriors of the cars under the IMPACT design language can be defined into three features which consists of - EXciting, EXpressive and EXtraordinary. For the interiors the language has been defined as- INviting, INtelligent and INtouch.

When designing a new product, the focus of the team involves the cohesion of creative work, design quality and the production simplicity of the project. In the initial stage, the market position and the target audience of the vehicle are decided. In the next stage, the team works on the sketches and with progression finalise different factors like the size, powertrain range and so on. After this, the design is given a three-dimensional profile digitally as well as physically in the form of clay and foam structure. This is where the management selects the final design to go ahead with.

The shortlisted model is then further refined and developed to make production of the parts simpler to manufacture. The final life-size model on completion gives an idea to the management how the car will look like in reality on the road. Once the vehicle is sanctioned the engineering team takes the project ahead into execution while the design team continues to work in synergy to ensure the car fulfils the required standards of fit and finish and the required quality criteria.

To hazard a guess on how much time is involved for these aforementioned processes to reach final execution, it is enough to just note that Tata follows a deadline of 40 months which equates to a period of just under 3.5 years. With the Tiago being the first vehicle to follow the new IMPACT design language, future models like the upcoming Tiago sedan, Nexon and Hexa that were showcased by Tata at this year’s Auto Expo can be seen carrying the same ideology.