Tata Nexon: the CNG is turbocharged, and you keep the boot

Three engines, not one engine three ways

Tata lists a 1,199 cc three-cylinder turbocharged Revotron petrol at 88.2 kW (roughly 120 PS) at 5,500 rpm, a 1,497 cc four-cylinder turbocharged Revotorq diesel at 84.5 kW at 3,750 rpm, and the same 1.2 turbo petrol running on CNG at 73.52 kW at 5,000 rpm with 170 Nm in gas mode.

The diesel is the one to pick if you do long, loaded highway runs — four cylinders and a low torque peak make it the calmest of the three at speed. The petrol is the one to pick if you don’t.

Why the CNG is different here

The usual CNG bargain is straightforward and unattractive: you save on fuel and you lose the boot to a single large cylinder. Tata has instead fitted two 30-litre cylinders for a 60-litre total, which is what preserves some usable luggage space.

The second thing is that the engine keeps its turbo on CNG. Most CNG conversions are naturally aspirated, which is why they feel flat. 170 Nm in gas mode is a genuinely different experience from the CNG cars people have had bad experiences with.

None of this makes CNG the right answer for everyone. If you drive 500 km a month, the savings won’t repay the premium in any reasonable timeframe. The point is that the usual reason to reject CNG, that the car becomes unpleasant and impractical, applies less here.

The variant maze

Nexon trims run Pure+, Smart, Smart+, Creative, Creative+ and Fearless+, and then each gains suffixes: S for sunroof, PS for panoramic sunroof, DCA for the 360° camera, DK for the Dark edition. The combinations run into dozens.

This is worth naming plainly because it’s where buyers lose money. It’s easy to be walked up two trims to get one feature you wanted. Decide which single feature you actually care about, usually the sunroof or the camera, and ask for the most affordable configuration that includes it, rather than accepting the first bundle offered.

What we can verify on price, and what we can’t

The Nexon opens at ₹7,39,990 for the Smart 1.2. Smart + is ₹8,21,990, a step of ₹82,000, and Smart + S is ₹8,51,990, so the S suffix, which is the sunroof, costs ₹30,000 here.

Above that, Tata’s own price page doesn’t publish the Creative and Fearless figures in a form we could read, and we won’t print numbers we haven’t verified. Ask the dealer for the full price list in writing. The pattern in the opening variants is the guide: roughly ₹80,000 to move a trim, roughly ₹30,000 to add the roof.

Our pick, and why

Aim at Creative. Below it you start losing things you’ll miss daily; above it you’re paying for packs.

Then choose the engine on running, not on feel in a ten-minute test drive. High urban mileage points at the CNG, long highway work at the diesel, and everything else at the turbo petrol.