Is this the proverbial Magic straw that broke the three-wheeled autorickshaws back?
Adil Jal Darukhanawala gets an exclusive first hands-on steer of the new Tata Magic Iris. I knew it the minute my eyes fell on it at Tata Motors’ spacious display at Auto Expo in January. It was, like the ground-breaking Ace, a concept which everyone was staring right in the face but no one wanted to actually look at it! The last mile people mover business in the land is yet the preserve of the ubiquitous three-wheeled autorickshaw, more often than not the Bajaj RE and what is important here is the fact that whosoever tried to take it on has failed thanks to the company having recovered all its capital costs umpteen times over. Of course at the price points this vehicle was selling, it was an ideal business tool for the impoverished and in small mofussil India it did the job admirably. Unfortunately trying to do the same job forever with the same dated tackle is not possible and this is where the Magic Iris moves into the mainframe. It is a vehicle whose time has come, or if I can para
