It had been a while since we had last driven the Tata Tiago, currently the entry-level hatchback offering from the manufacturer. So when Tata Motors sent one over for t2oS to take out for a spin, it was a bit of a rediscovery of sorts. The one we drove was the fully specced version that was painted a new shade called Midnight Plum, a very dark shade between maroon and purple and looks almost black. This and its sedan sibling the Tigor are the first two cars from Tata Motors that are being delivered with a factory-fitted CNG kit. We wanted to check out how it would fare in real-life city conditions, for which it primarily appears to be aimed.

On the outside it looks every bit the regular Tiago, which it is. As CNG vehicles are wont to be, this one too is the petrol-engine powered — that is the only powertrain available at the moment — car with the addition of a CNG kit that gives users a choice of which fuel they want to run the car on. There is a little ‘i-CNG’ moniker on the bootlid that is the only giveaway that this has this fuel option. Other than that there is nothing.

The grey and beige interior is quite smart and apart from a little switch marked ‘CNG’ on the dash, the only indication of the dual fuel are two fuel level indicators — for CNG and petrol — in the instrument cluster

The difference is more significant inside. The boot is where the CNG tank is mounted and that leaves absolutely no space for any luggage whatsoever, especially if one is going on outstation runs. In which case the option is either to carry the stuff inside or mount a roof rack for the luggage. The other thing is that the spare wheel cannot be taken out in any way through the rear hatch. The way to do so is to flip the backrest of the rear seat forward and reach for it from the passenger compartment. Now this might look like a singularly cumbersome thing to do, but Tata Motors provides a puncture repair kit for the tubeless radials that the Tiago rides on. So one can repair the puncture and reinflate the tyre without taking the wheel off.

On the outside there isn’t much apart from the i-CNG moniker on the bootlid that will tell you this car runs on the cleaner fuel as well; The car we drove came in a rather nice Midnight Plum colour that’s sort of a deep blackish-purple/maroon.

One difference between this car and most other CNG vehicles is that this one doesn’t need to be started up on petrol. There is little switch on the central console that toggles between the fuels and the car will start even if the chosen fuel is CNG. This takes a lot of bother out of cutting the engine, say, at traffic lights and then switching fuels to restart and then switching to CNG again to drive.

The instrument cluster is a little different in that it shows the level of petrol as well as CNG that is there in the tanks. The rest of the interiors are the usual airy ones with the dual tone working quite well.

The CNG tank takes up the entire boot space and the way to get the spare tyre out (in this case a doughnut) is by flipping the rear seat back forward. That, however, will most probably not be necessary except for extreme situations since the Tiago comes with a puncture repair kit that will make the job quite hassle-free.

On the road the loss of power isn’t significant and it is pretty easy to drive about town. We drove on faster stretches in the city as well as in bumper-to-bumper traffic and it did both quite well. So no pain point there at all. But one might want to shift down a notch at times and in slower traffic there is a tendency to drive in lower gear to keep the power flowing. For those who want to keep running costs low in the city, the Tiago CNG is certainly an option to look at.

TIAGO i-CNG IN NUMBERS

What: 5-door, dual fuel hatchback

LxBxH (mm): 3,765 x 1,677 x 1,535

Wheelbase (mm): 2,400

Weight (kg): CNG 1,040-1,070

Engine: 1,199cc, 3-cylinder, BS6, petrol

Peak power: Petrol 86ps, CNG 73.4ps

Peak torque: Petrol 113Nm, CNG 95Nm

Fuel efficiency: Petrol 20.9kmpl, CNG 26.49km/kg

Transmission: 5-speed manual

Number of variants: Four

Price: Rs 6.10 lakh to Rs 7.65 lakh ex showroom in Calcutta