Tata has launched the Nexon CAMO Limited Edition at Rs 9.99 lakh, ex-showroom, for the Creative variant. That is the same price as the equivalent regular Nexon, which immediately makes this a more interesting proposition than most special editions.

The edition marks nine years of the Nexon and over a million cars sold, and unlike the CAMO editions Tata has done before on the Harrier and the Punch, this one is not just a paint job. There are two additions here that were not available on the regular petrol, diesel or CNG Nexon at all.

The first is the screen. The CAMO gets what Tata calls the Ultra View Twin HD Digital Cockpit, headlined by a 12.3-inch Harman touchscreen paired with a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster with embedded navigation. Until now, if you wanted the bigger screen in a Nexon, you had to buy the electric one. Every combustion-engined Nexon made do with a 10.25-inch infotainment unit.

What makes this significant is where in the range it sits. Both screens are available right from the Creative variant, the very same trim that costs Rs 9.99 lakh. On the regular Nexon, the Creative gets the smaller 10.25-inch infotainment screen and a smaller instrument cluster. So Tata is putting its largest ICE Nexon display and a full digital cluster into a mid-spec car at no extra cost. 

 The second addition is the one I think buyers will appreciate more over time. There is now a dashcam integrated into the car from the factory, and rather than being a single unit stuck to the windscreen, it runs off all four cameras of the 360-degree surround view system. It records continuously around the vehicle, and if it detects an impact, that footage is automatically saved to a separate one gigabyte of internal memory so it cannot be overwritten. It supports a USB drive up to 256GB, clips can be played back on the infotainment screen, and footage can be transferred to your phone via a local hotspot and a QR code.

Why this matters in India is straightforward. Anyone who has been in a minor collision here knows how quickly the argument becomes one person’s word against another’s, and how much of an insurance claim comes down to establishing who did what. Four-camera coverage means you have a record of what happened alongside and behind the car, not just ahead of it, which is where a lot of our incidents actually occur. Add hit-and-run cases in parked situations, and continuous surround recording that saves itself on impact becomes genuinely useful. On the regular Nexon, a dashcam is a dealer-fitted accessory. Here it comes built in.

The cosmetic changes are the usual special-edition fare, though well judged. Two exclusive colours: Munnar Mist, a dark green that reads grey in shadow and picks up green and gold tones in sunlight, and Coorg Cloud, a grey-silver with metallic depth. Both names are borrowed from the Sierra. There is CAMO badging on both fenders and CAMO-themed perforation on the front seat headrests.

Everything else carries over. The 1.2-litre turbo petrol, the 1.5-litre turbo diesel and the turbo iCNG are all unchanged, as are the manual, AMT and DCA gearbox options. Six airbags remain standard, and the panoramic sunroof, ventilated seats, JBL audio, 360-degree camera and ADAS are all as before.

The CAMO is available across five variants, from Creative CAMO up to Fearless+ A PS CAMO, and is on sale for a limited period.