New Drive: Tata Motors launches Harrier at Rs 12.69 lakh

Tata Motors on Wednesday launched sport utility vehicle (SUV) Harrier at a starting price of Rs 12.69 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai) with top-variant being priced at Rs 16.25 lakh.

Harrier is the first Tata car to be built on the Optimal Modular Efficient Global Advanced Architecture (Omega) which is derived from the Land Rover platform.

“We will now be launching cars on the Alpha and Omega platforms. While Omega platform will be used for SUVs, Alpha platform will be used for hatchbacks. We will be having 12-14 brand names by 2021 based on these platforms which will help us capture the market,” said Mayank Pareek, president of passenger vehicle business unit at Tata Motors.

While the UV industry grew at 3% year-on-year (y-o-y) for nine months ended December, Tata Motors expanded by 75% y-o-y in the UV space. This, apart from a low base, may be attributed to the success of Nexon, which helped the company increase its market share by 120 bps y-o-y. Nexon was the last car to be built on the Tata X1 platform, same as that of the 1997-Indigo and Indica platform.

According to Rajendra Petkar, chief technological officer, Tata Motors, “Omega platform will be providing a proper SUV and not compact SUV like Nexon. So, it will be better in terms of performance, size and ground clearance.”

While there is no direct competition of Tata Harrier due the pricing and features, it may still be compared with Hyundai Creta, Jeep Compass and Mahindra’s XUV500. Tata Harrier will be featuring 4,598 mm of length, 1,894 mm of width with 1956cc engine capacity.

“With Harrier, we are entering into a wide space. When compact SUVs came in India 7-8 years back, they looked like SUVs, but were not proper SUVs. They addressed aspirations of people at that time. Today, these people are looking for an upgrade. This car will address those aspirations of India,” Pareek said.

Tata Harrier will be available in four variants – XE, XM, XT and XZ – and in five colors – Caslisto Copper, Thermisto Gold, Ariel Silver, Telesto Grey and Orcus White.

Tata Motors