Geneva: Tata Engineering, the flagship automobile company of the Tata Group, on Tuesday unveiled its new concept car, a seven-seater multipurpose vehicle (MPV), Indiva, at the 72nd Geneva Motor Show.

Built on the same lines as its B-Segment offering, Indica, the new MPV concept car, demonstrates the same versatility. The car is slated to be launched by 2004 in Europe and India simultaneously.

Unveiling the car, Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata said, "Now history will tell whether the Tatas were courageous or foolish." He was referring to the earlier sentiments expressed by automobile manufacturers and analysts during the launch of Indica, which is now the largest selling car in India in the small car segment — 1.5 lakh cars sold by December 2001.

Mr. Tata said, "Today, like that other day, is a momentous day for India with a new participant in the automotive world – a living fact that an Indian product participated shoulder-to-shoulder with the international ones." Added Tata Sons executive director R. Gopalakrishnan, "The launch is the culmination of a long and strenuous process within the Tata Group to create a truly global product that can compete in the international market."

Indiva is a compact, space-efficient vehicle, which is less than 4.3 metres in length. Styled by the Italian design house IDEA, it has a high seating position, with on-board electronic systems integrating high-level in-car entertainment, navigation and Internet connectivity.

The MPV has continuity with the Tata brand image, with the contours of the grill being similar to that of Indica and the two-seater coupe concept, Tata Aria, which was shown at the earlier Geneva Motor Show.

Other displays from the Tata family include a three-box sedan and a hatch-back version of Indica — both developed on the Indica platform. While the former is to hit Indian roads in September, commercial production of the latter is in the pipeline.

Tata Engineering has also decided to launch an Estate version for launch early next year which will be targeted at the European market.