Tata Altroz vs Renault Triber Comparison: Stylish Hatchback Or Utilitarian MPV?

1. Tata Altroz vs Renault Triber: Introduction

Both Tata Altroz and Renault Triber managed to create a lot of hype among the domestic car buyers at the time of their launches in the Indian market. You first saw the Altroz as the Tata 45X concept at the Auto Expo 2018 and a later on, in the near-production version at the Geneva Motor Show 2019. Finally, we have the Tata Altroz – a stylish, premium hatchback going on sale in early 2020.

We also saw the Renault Triber, a nicely-designed entry-level compact MPV that creates an all-new unique sub-four-metre MPV segment for India. Renault has a knack of doing something very differently and the difference of Renault Triber is pretty well-received by the Indian customers who are having keen nose for a utilitarian seven-seater that isn’t much larger than a hatchback.

Renault Triber competes with the premium hatchback segment aggressively. So today, we compare the Renault Triber with the segment’s new entrant, Tata Altroz to see whether the Triber could fare against the Tata Altroz, at least on paper. Check it out now!

2. Tata Altroz vs Renault Triber Dimensions: Which Is Bigger?

Despite being a family mover, the Renault Triber is not much larger than the Tata Altroz in terms of dimensions. That said, it breaks the myth of producing cars that an MPV is always overwhelmingly larger than small car like sedans or hatchback.

As you can see, the Renault Triber isn’t bigger that much compared with the Tata Altroz. While sharing the same length of 3990 mm with the Altroz, the Triber is even narrower than the hatchback car by 16 mm. However, in terms of height and wheelbase, the Tata Altroz loses out to the Triber by quite some margins. The French people mover’s trump card here is its height and wheelbase that are exactly 120 mm taller and 135 mm longer than that of the Altroz counterpart. The Triber also gets a higher ground clearance in comparison with the Tata Altroz’s ground clearance of 165 mm.

That’s to say, the Tata Altroz is very big in size as far as the hatchbacks go. The hatchback measures 3990 mm long, 1755 mm wide, 1523 mm high along with a comparable wheelbase of 2501 mm. It is even heavier than the seven-seater multi-purpose vehicle by a great level.

3. Tata Altroz vs Renault Triber Design: Which Is Better Looking?

Exterior Comparison

Apart from its “magical” seating capacity within its modest size, the Renault Triber captivates the customer with its sporty look. We know that MPVs often don’t really score well in terms of beauty, but the seven-seater by Renault manages to offer the utmost ample interior space but not at the expense of the exterior look.

Based on the company’s new modular platform, the Triber boasts of a handsome silhouette that takes a lot of inspirations from the Renault Kwid, or in other words, the Renault Triber is in line with the carmaker’s global styling philosophy. The signature black-out grille takes a prominent place up front and the sweptback projector headlamps nicely merges into the grille. The Triber delivers a good mix of dynamism and sportiness. The upright stance, well-sculpted bonnet to the kink at the C-pillar in the glasshouse and C-shaped taillamps are parts of the package. The MPV adopts a lot of SUV-inspired design elements on its bodywork such as front and rear scuff plates, black body claddings and roof rails.

When talking about the design, it’s the Altroz that bangs the drum the most. True, Tata Motors had never been on top as far as the design goes but the arrivals of new-age vehicles like Tata Nexon and Tata Altroz have written a different story. While retaining the conventional hatchback design, the Tata Altroz brings in a host of stylistic design cues with sharper lines and curves, making the car very compelling to look at.

The IMPACT 2.0 design language flaunts the Altroz so well that gives it some appealing factor to set it from the rest. From our perspective, the shark nose-like front fascia of the Altroz is more distinctive. The sleek black “smiling” grille with sweptback headlamps with chrome inserts are more enticing and exciting than that of the MPV.

There’s no SUV-inspired design factors here. No skid plates, no body cladding and no roof rails. But Tata’s designers are very excelling in brightening up the Altroz’s design its own way. Another distinction on the Altroz is the rear door handles which now sit on the C-pillar instead of the traditional position as seen in earlier hatchbacks – quite a bit reminiscent of the Maruti Swift. Tata has surely played the colour cards on the Altroz’s profiles. The black embellishments on the windows are tapering towards the rear that gives the car a sportier tipped-forward stance in effect. The dual-tone theme is also adopted for the edgy rear end of the car. The tail lamps surrounds, spoiler and upper part of the boot lid are all finished in black. The contrast black roof is also available as an option for a higher premium appeal.

Overall, while the Triber decides to be different from the rest, giving best mix of MPV and crossover elements, the Tata Altroz’s design is rather conventional but desirable and sporty at the same time.

Interior Comparison

This is the part of the comparison that we think the Renault Triber is the smarter player. Once you stepped inside the cabins of both the Tata Altroz and Renault Triber, you’ll notice that sophistication heads for the latter this time. The dashboard design of the Tata Altroz is rather premium for a Tata hatchback but it looks a bit plain compared to the dual-tone trendy-looking dashboard on the Triber. In fact, the Altroz’s dash is so familiar with us as we’ve seen it in the Tiago, the Nexon and many other Tata cars.

There’s a free-standing 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system by Harman over there along with a MID that sounds fantastic. In the Triber, the 8.0-inch MediaNAV touchscreen infotainment system looks way larger and better. The pizza slice-like tachometer looks interesting. Silver accents are seen around the dash too, which are given a miss on the Altroz’s all-black unit. What works on favour of the Indian hatchback car, is the flat-bottom tilt steering that is fixed with controls. The Renault Triber’s steering looks cool with silver garnishes but miss out on the buttons for control that we’re expected for.

The Altroz has something that the Triber doesn’t and vice versa. The Tata offers excellent 90-degree wide opening doors that is comfortable for people to get in and out. The Triber has easy fix seats that provide flexible seating for its passengers, making its USP. Tata Altroz vs Renault Triber, which is more comfortable? We’ll find that out right away in the next part of the comparison.

4. Tata Altroz vs Renault Triber Features: Which Is Safer And More Convenient?

Comfort Features Comparison

Which one is more comfortable? Of course, it’s the Triber MPV to be named. Talking about the cabin space, the Tata Altroz’s big sizes manages to lend the car a very good space on the inside, especially at the rear. However, it still looks dull with the flexible 5+2 seating configurations of the Triber. The French carmaker has been well-known for building very practical cabin and this completely goes for the Renault Triber.

The carmaker liberate a fairly good amount of space on the inside the Triber within its sub-four-metre footprint. The headroom and legroom for the second row and third row of seats are ample. The easy fix seats help the car easily transform into a 6-seater or a 7-seater instantly. The MPV offers up to 625 litres of boot space for the regular five-seater mode that is brilliantly larger than the Altroz’s 345 litres of the boot lid.

As parts of the comfort features package, the Renault Triber endears itself with a great number of storage spaces, twin AC vents for the second and third row, 12V charging sockets, engine start-stop push button, electric power steering among others.

Apart from the 90-degree wide-opening doors, the Tata Altroz comes with comfort goodies like multi-drive mode, flat rear floor, power windows, manual air cons, front seat adjustable headrest, front power outlet, tilt steering as standard across the range.

Safety Features Comparison

What should be noted here is that after the Tata Nexon, the Tata Altroz has achieved a solid 5-star rating from the Global NCAP crash test in adult occupant protection. Aside from the ALFA architecture construction, the made-in-India hatchback car is equipped with a lot of safety features such as dual front airbags, advanced ABS with EBD and CSC, reverse parking sensors, ISOFIX child seat anchorage, driver and co-driver seatbelt reminders, headlamp leveling, engine immobilizer, drive away locking, high-speed alert, front seatbelt with load limiter and many more.

The Renault Triber, on the other hands, comes packed with dual front airbags, ABS, rear parking sensors, speed warning system as standard options on the model while the higher-spec trims get two more airbags and a reverse camera. The Renault Triber is also a safe drive, even though it hasn’t gone through the crash test. However, the Tata Altroz rolls over a much safer feeling this time.

 5. Tata Altroz vs Renault Triber Engine Specs: Which Is Better In Terms Of Performance?

Tata Altroz offers two engine options – both petrol and diesel under its bonnet. Whereas, the Renault Triber is available with a single 999 cc 3-cylinder Energy petrol mill that also powers the international-spec models like the Renault Clio. While the petrol engine of the Altroz is the updated version of the Tigor’s 1.2-litre unit, the Triber’s 1.0-litre burner is the development of the 999 cc petrol unit from the Kwid.

Certainly, the smaller engine of the Triber seems less powerful than the equivalent petrol-powered Tata Altroz. It makes 72 PS of power and 96 Nm of torque and initially comes mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. The Renault Triber AMT has just revealed at the Auto Expo 2020, thereby giving an advantage over the Tata Altroz which is still available with a single 5-speed manual transmission. Note that the Altroz will get a dual-clutch automatic transmission sometime later but the launch timeline is still unclear.

The frosting in the cake of the Atroz over the Triber is a powerful 1.5-litre turbocharged diesel engine sourced from the popular Tata Nexon. While the Triber diesel is sadly given a miss, the Altroz’s oil burner can be tuned to produce 90 PS of power at 4,000 rpm and 200 Nm of torque at 1250 – 3000 rpm, giving the car a huge edge over the Triber in terms of performance and then cater to the demands of buyers who are in the market for a diesel.

6. Tata Altroz vs Renault Triber Mileage: Which Is More Fuel Efficient?

The Tata Altroz petrol has an ARAI-certified fuel mileage of 19.05 kmpl while that of the Renault Triber is rated at 20.5 kmpl. The difference is not much here. The fuel efficiency figures of the Tata Altroz and Renault Triber are given on the table below:

7. Tata Altroz vs Renault Triber Price: Which Is Cheaper?

The official price of the Tata Altroz has been revealed and it’s surprisingly lower than the segment-leader Maruti Baleno. Nonetheless, at Rs 4.99 – 6.78 Lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), the Renault Triber is more affordable as against the premium hatchback. Check out the price data of the Altroz vs Triber here.

8. Tata Altroz: Other Competitors

Tata Altroz is competing with the likes of Maruti Baleno, Hyundai i20, Honda Jazz and the rebadged Toyota Glanza, etc. in its segment’s competition.

9. Renault Triber: Other Competitors

Renault Triber takes on some models like Maruti Ertiga, Maruti Baleno, Maruti WagonR, Tata Tiago, etc. in both MPVs, hatchbacks and SUVs segment.

10. Tata Altroz vs Renault Triber Verdict: Which Model Is Worth Buying?

With many USPs on offer, both the Renault Triber and Tata Altroz are worth your consideration. The Altroz is more than a looker at the start, it is extremely safe, it’s more powerful and it’s aggressive at the price tags. Buying the Altroz means you’ll get an immediate impression at the first glance on the roads.

It is a practical family hatchback car that offers adequate space and comfort. It is also dynamic on the ride and handling and surely the biggest appeal here is the 5-star Global NCAP’s rating. That’s why the Tata Altroz is quite well-received for now, with more than 4,000 units sold within the first month of its launch.

Renault Triber then suits you more if you are searching for more space on the inside – a good people mover that doesn’t let you compromise on the compactness. The pricing also tips the scale toward the Triber since it starts from Rs 4.95 Lakh and tops off at Rs 6.49 Lakh.

No doubts, flexibility, practicality and utility are some of the Triber’s biggest USPs that the Altroz can match, though the small engine is a bit underpowered compared to the hatchback rival. Still, it depends on your purpose of buying and your budget to make the decision.