Tata Altroz DCA Tech Check

The Tata Altroz has been a trailblazer. It was launched in 2020 just when the pandemic started and it set the benchmark for what a premium hatchback should be. It was the first car in its segment to get a 5-star safety rating from the folks at Global NCAP. Heck even today, it remains the only one in its class to do so. It was also one of the first connected cars in its segment. And then in 2021, they released the turbo edition of the car which provided more oomph and was for enthusiasts. But over the course of time, the competition has caught up. Hyundai launched the i20; more recently Maruti Suzuki woke up with an all-new Baleno and as we reported recently that Baleno has already received 50,000 preorders. So Tata had to respond. And they have responded with this — the Altroz DCA. What's new out here? Well, the DCA is Tata's nomenclature for a dual-clutch transmission, they call it a dual-clutch automatic and it is quite intriguing. Usually, I'm not talking about transmissions but the fact that you get a dual-clutch, something that has been popularised by the Volkswagen group is intriguing. But it comes with a number of firsts, world firsts, so much so that Tata Motors has locked in 45 patents. So let's do a deep dive into this transmission and in this vehicle technology-wise run into a carandbike tech check.

The most important aspect of this transmission is that this is a planetary gearbox on a dual-clutch transmission. What does that mean? Instead of 20 gears, it has only 13 gears. So fewer moving parts which make it more reliable (theoretically speaking) and at the same time faster shifts makes the car more energetic and peppy. And on this 1.2-litre Revetron engine, it needs all the push which is where this gearbox comes in. Though my colleague Pratik who has done a full review of this may not fully with this and we will give you a detailed low down on how it actually performs.

Tata Altroz DCA
Photo Credit: Apoorv Choudhary

More than this, Tata is using shift by wire technology which means this car gets very rapid shifts at just 250 milliseconds. That is really fast. It is also one of the first cars with a “wet clutch” on an automatic transmission. Usually, a wet clutch is usually found on a two-wheeler but this one gets a wet clutch with active cooling which mean this is going to be a very reliable car in all kinds of conditions. Tata has developed the car for the diversity of Indian terrains — be it the Thar desert, be it the wet area of Cherpunji, be it bumper to bumper traffic in New Delhi or the mountainous twisty roads of Manali. That was what they say, we have to test it but there is no reason to not believe Tata motors here.

They have also embedded machine learning and AI at the heart of this transmission. There is a transmission control unit ( TCU) that is the hardware element and Tata motors have designed machine learning algorithms that are infused in the vehicle and they learn your driving behaviour. In fact, if the car is being used by multiple people in the household say your dad, your mom, brother or sister, maybe a chauffeur, it will learn all their diverse driving styles and learn about the conditions you're driving in, say you're suddenly around the Thar desert near Alsisar in Rajasthan going for some music festival — then the transmission is going to learn about the terrain and learn about who is driving and give you optimal performance. So tech-wise, this is a very advanced gearbox. It is a dual-clutch but a more advanced dual-clutch for a car that starts at less than Rs 10 lakhs and that's why Tata Motors has locked in 45 patents for it.

It even gets a self-healing filtration system which makes sure that not only a lot of dust gets gathered which can overheat the transmission but also prevents it from getting damaged. There is also a parking brake which is important for stop-start traffic, especially with automatic cars.

Apart from the DCA transmission — this car has always come loaded with tech. You get this 7-inch infotainment screen. You get a full audio experience powered by Harmon Kardon. There are 8 speakers out here so it will create a bit of a racket if you really want to pump it up. The screen itself is pretty responsive, however, it is not the brightest one nor the smoothest. It is actually a little coarse out here something I even noted in the Tata punch review, but it will get the job done and the interface itself is very simple -- like using a smartphone.

Tata Altroz DCA
Photo Credit: Apoorv Choudhary

It also comes embedded with an instrument cluster which gets a digital element that is very easy to view and gives you a lot of information. In fact, when you're changing gears, it will give all the information about the transmission as well. The infotainment system even supports Apple Carplay and Android Auto unfortunately still the wired avatar but still pretty nice. You get rain-sensing wipers, you get a cooled glovebox, yeah, it is armed to the teeth and then it even gets Tata's IRA connected car stack which is really handy as it allows you to do a bunch of things like geofencing and remotely unlock the car. Tata will even provide you with a wearable key. We don't have it right now it is basically a wearable something like an Apple Watch or more like a Fitbit that you can wear and it will act as a digital key.

The instrument cluster also gets a digital element
Photo Credit: Apoorv Chaudhary

So overall, the Altroz still cuts the muster as it has all the technology in it and now it gets this DCA transmission while being one of the safest cars and one of the prettiest cars in the segment and it does the job.

At the end of the day, Tata has modernised this car even more and it stacks up really well against the new Baleno. The i20 perhaps has a little more on the Altroz considering the refinement of the package, build quality and has more features like wireless charging and air purification. It also offers the dual-clutch transmission in the higher-revving turbo petrol model which Tata strangely hasn't so far decided to do.