Tata Harrier gears up for SUV battle

Tata Motors, which has been releasing teasers and images of its new and upcoming Harrier SUV for a while now, today announced more details about its upcoming five-seat SUV.

The Tata Harrier is bigger than its rivals by a good margin. As the Harrier shares its platform with the rather large (for this segment) Land Rover Discovery Sport, it is nearly the same size as its British counterpart and dwarfs a large selection of its competition. The five-seat SUV is 4,598mm long, 1,894mm wide, 1,706mm tall and has a 2,741mm wheelbase. The ground clearance is 205mm. The Harrier, which has a fuel tank capacity of 50 litres, tips the scales at 1,675kg, which makes it a bit heavier than its rivals, though its 235/70 R16-235/65 R17 tyres are at par (with a spare wheel that is 235/70 R16).

What powers the Harrier?
The Tata Harrier shares its transversely-mounted 2.0-litre diesel engine and 6-speed manual gearbox with the Jeep Compass. However, in the Harrier, this motor will develop 140hp and 350Nm compared to the Compass’ 173hp/350Nm powerplant. At launch, this will be the only powertrain option, though a Hyundai-sourced six-speed automatic and a petrol engine will join the line-up at a later date.

While the Harrier’s platform and powertrain are shared with capable off-roaders, Tata Motors will not offer four-wheel-drive with the model, at least for now. However, it will get a Land Rover-like Terrain Response controller with multiple modes (Normal, Wet and Rough) for the ESP system. A few teasers also showed the Harrier being tested in tough conditions. This means that the Harrier will be more capable off the beaten path than its front-wheel-drive rivals. Additionally, the model will also come with Tata’s Multi Drive 2.0 that comprises of Eco, City and Sport modes.

While it shares its underpinnings with the Discovery Sport, the Harrier comes with an independent front suspension with McPherson struts at the front and gets a semi-independent twist blade setup at the rear. Braking duties on the Harrier are carried out by discs up front and drums at the back.

Creature comforts aplenty
On the features front, Tata Motors will equip the Harrier with plenty of goodies, including a unique twin-screen setup. The 8.8-inch infotainment display and the 7.0-inch digital MID will share info with each other. Both screens will be able to display information such as turn-by-turn navigation, music and other infotainment data. The brand has teased more equipment confirming the Harrier will get a JBL sound system, a cooled storage space under the front centre armrest and puddle lamps. However, the model will not be offered with a sunroof, which is a feature that many Indian buyers look for in this segment. The model sports an 8-way adjustable driver’s seat, four-way adjustable passenger front seat, a 60:40 split, folding rear seat. The Harrier has a 425-litre boot, and folding the rear seats takes that up to 810 litres.

The Harrier’s infotainment system consists of an 8.8-inch touch-screen display with nine JBL speakers, which includes four tweeters and a sub-woofer, along with an amplifier. The system comes with Android Auto as standard, while Apple CarPlay will be introduced later. The SUV also comes with 2.4-ampere fast charging ports at the front and at the back.

On the outside, kit that the Harrier gets includes xenon HID headlamps, LED tail-lamps, front fog lamps and LED DRLs.

Safety features
The Tata Harrier gets a decent amount of safety kit that includes six airbags (driver, front passenger, seat side and curtain) and ABS with EBD, along with corner stability control, hill-hold and hill descent control, a roll-over mitigation system and hydraulic brake assist. It also gets Isofix child seat mounts at the rear.

Getting rivals all harried up
Based on its expected Rs 16-21 lakh on-road price tag, the Tata Harrier will have plenty of rivals spanning more than one segment of SUVs. This selection starts with the Hyundai Creta (top-spec diesel-manual retails at Rs 15.10 lakh ex-showroom, Delhi) and goes all the way to the Jeep Compass (with a Rs 21.13 lakh ex-showroom, India price tag for the 4x2 diesel).

Also see: Tata Harrier: 5 development secrets.