India's best-selling SUV hits key production milestone of 5 lakh units

Tata Nexon has been a power player in the SUV segment in the Indian car market and has been a hot-seller for several years. Recently, Nexon from Tata Motors hit a key production milestone of five lakh units and the company took to its social media handle to celebrate the achievement.

A sub-compact SUV, Tata Nexon was first showcased in prototype form at the 2014 edition of the Auto Expo in New Delhi before being officially launched in 2017 at a starting price of ₹5.85 lakh (ex-showroom), going up to ₹9.45 lakh (ex-showroom). For the base variant in particular, Tata managed to undercut pricing on rivals by a fair margin. While Tata Motors did have a whole lot of experience with SUVs - remember the first-gen Safari that is still a favourite for many, Nexon was the company's first in the sub-four meter stable.

While it had to compete against the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza at the time - and even does till date, Nexon quickly became a crowd favourite courtesy its rather muscular looks and peppy drive traits. Powering it at the time was a 1.5-litre diesel engine producing 110 hp as well as a 1.2-litre petrol motor which offered the same power output. Automatic gearboxes would follow soon after.

Nexon has always been quite well kitted in terms of features. It now gets air purification system, reverse camera assist, connected-car technology, voice command, among other highlights. It also comes with multiple drive modes - Eco, City and Sport. With 170 Nm of torque in the petrol version and 260 Nm on offer on the diesel, Nexon remains one of the peppiest SUVs in its segment.

The biggest draw factor towards Tata Nexon, however, is its five-star crash test rating and other safety highlights like dual front airbags as standard, Electronic Traction Control, Emergency Brake assist, Roll- over Mitigation, Hill Hold Control, etc.

Over the past several years, the competition field has increased and at present, Nexon competes against the likes of the updated Brezza, the updated Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet and Mahindra XUV300. It, however, is the only car in its segment to also have an all-electric versions - Nexon EV and Nexon EV Max. There is also an updated model that has been spotted on test runs and an official launch is expected later this year.