Tata Zica affected by the Zika virus?

If you have read the Team-BHP official review, you'd know that Tata Motors has gone all-out with its new mass market car – the Zica. The name Zica, stands for 'Zippy Car', quite similar to how Tata derived the name Indica from 'India Car'. We did mention that the car will most probably be renamed when launched in international markets, especially in South American markets as Zica means bad luck in Portuguese. However, if that wasn't bad enough, the Zika epidemic has just forced Tata to re-think the car’s name before it is formally launched.

The mosquito-borne Zika virus has been spreading at an alarming rate and constitutes a public health emergency as per the World Health Organization.

Since Tata Motors is banking heavily on the Zica to drive volumes and increase footfall to their showrooms, the company fears that the Zika virus will have a negative impact on the brand. The Zika virus isn't a recent phenomenon and Tata Motors should have ideally taken all aspects into consideration before branding their product.

Tata Motors is currently in a tight situation here as the launch of the car is scheduled soon after its public preview at the 2016 Auto Expo. Cars have already been dispatched to dealerships and rebranding would mean getting the new brand name registered with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), which would result in a further delay in its launch.

This hatchback project was codenamed - 'Kite'.

Source: livemint