Tata Harrier could come Down Under

When it launched the Tata Xenon ute in late 2013, the Australian importer for Tata Motors — Walkinshaw Group subsidiary Fusion Automotive — said it also hoped to introduce passenger cars from the Indian auto giant here some time after 2018.

Since then Tata has revealed six-seat Hexa SUV at the 2015 Geneva motor show and the Nexon small SUV at the 2016 Delhi show, and kicked off the reveal campaign for its all-new Harrier SUV in July this year.

Due on sale in India in early 2019 but set to become a global model, the Tata Harrier could become a direct rival to some of Australia’s most popular SUVs if it is produced in an appropriate specification.

Fusion Automotive boss Gary Beer told motoring.com.au the Tata Harrier was a good chance for Australia if it was to achieve a maximum five-star safety rating from Euro NCAP or ANCAP, which is now all but a prerequisite for any new passenger car sold here.

“We’re working through the business case,” he said. “As with anything Tata does, we’re looking at it and going through all the checks and balances.

“A lot of Tata models are either too small or don’t come with the right specifications for Australia, mainly in terms of safety. In the space of that product there’s an expectation, irrespective of the price point, that five stars is a minimum.

“So we would have an expectation that it would need to have five stars to be sold in Australia.

In the meantime we’re doing as much as we can in terms of the business case and the traffic lights involved in that.”

The Tata Harrier is powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine dubbed Kyrotec, supplied by Fiat Chrysler, expected to output around 105kW/320Nm and matched with a six-speed manual transmission. Petrol and automatic versions are yet to be confirmed.

More interestingly, as part of Tata’s ownership of Jaguar Land Rover, it’s based on a version of the D8 platform that underpins the Land Rover Discovery Sport, Range Rover Evoque and Jaguar E-PACE, promising top-notch refinement and dynamics. Indeed Tata is promising best-in-class quality, space and connectivity.

Dubbed the Optimal Modular Efficient Global Architecture (OMEGA) by Tata, the all-steel platform dates back to when Ford owned both JLR and Volvo, and is related to previous versions of the EUCD architecture beneath superseded Ford Mondeo and Volvo S60 models.

From what we can see in the series of teaser videos released so far, the sleek five-seat SUV is unlike any Tata model before it, wearing a concept car-like exterior design with smooth body surfacing and a blacked-out roof and pillars.

Up front, taking a leaf out of the lighting designs of the Hyundai Kona and Jeep Cherokee (before it was facelifted), the headlights are positioned below a pair of narrow LED driving lights where the main beams would normally reside.

As we’ve reported previously, Tata expects the Harrier, which comes with five seats as standard but will offer seven as an option, to become its top-selling model.

“Born of legendary pedigree with sleek looks and dynamism, Tata Harrier provides a glimpse of the future generation of Tata Motors vehicles in terms of styling, technology and performance capabilities,” says Tata Motors.

“It marries an extremely robust architecture to our future facing design language. Tata Harrier is luxurious yet practical, comfortable yet versatile, power-packed yet easy to drive.

“Tata Harrier is a 5-seater monocoque SUV that has been tested across the harshest of terrains, developed with world-class manufacturing processes and packed with top-of-the-line safety features.

“With legendary pedigree running through its veins, Tata Harrier promises to shatter all current benchmarks and pave entirely new standards for SUVs in India.”