Both Harrier and Safari sit on Omegarc platform sourced from Land Rover Discovery Sport and Stellantis sourced 2.0L diesel engine
Tata Motors is the third highest-selling PV manufacturer in India. With a slew of SUVs in its arsenal, Tata Motors is one of the highest-selling SUV makers in India too. Especially the Nexon which got beat by Brezza recently by a very small margin to become sub 4m SUV king. But at the top end of its lineup, sales are far lower in the bigger UV segment.
With Safari and Harrier, at one time, Tata Motors used to be the one to beat in D2 SUV segment. But now that crown is taken by Mahindra’s XUV700. To boost sales, Tata Motors has cleverly launched plenty of special edition options. Prominent among them is Dark Edition, which accounts for almost 50 percent of total Harrier and Safari sales.
Kaziranga Edition and Jet Edition are also on offer. Safari even goes a step ahead and offers front and rear seat ventilation functions with Gold Edition. But to counter XUV700, upcoming New Gen Hector, and even Scorpio N, for that matter, Tata Motors has now implied one of its tried and tested formulas on Harrier and Safari.
Safari and Harrier XM
That approach by Tata Motors is to offer a sunroof with a lower-spec trim. This has done wonders with Nexon and spawned XM (S) and XM+ (S) trims offered with both petrol and diesel engine options as well as both automatic and manual gearbox options as well. In effect, we have XM (S) and XM+ (S) with Petrol MT and Petrol AMT. Also, XM (S) and XM+ (S) with Diesel MT and Diesel AMT.
These 8 variants have brought in a lot of footfall to Tata showrooms and have translated to sales as well. Now, both Harrier and Safari have also received the same treatment of a sunroof option with lower-spec XM trim. This addition is offered with both manual and automatic gearbox options too. These variants are Harrier XMS and XMAS and Safari XMS and XMAS.
Mechanically, both Safari and Harrier XMS and XMAS trims get the same Stellantis sourced 2.0L diesel engine making 168 bhp of power and 350 Nm of torque. This engine is mated to the same 6-speed manual and 6-speed automatic gearbox options.
Features and Pricing
Harrier XMS variant now costs Rs. 17.20 lakh and XMAS variant cost Rs. 18.50 lakh. This is an increment of Rs. 1.11 lakh for XMS and Rs. 1.15 lakh for XMAS. Safari XMS variant costs Rs. 17.96 lakh and XMAS variant cost Rs. 19.26 lakh. This is an increment of Rs. 1.16 lakh over the non-sunroof model (All prices ex-sh).
Safari and Harrier XMS and XMAS variants now get a large panoramic sunroof along with 17” alloy wheels. These wheels are the same as found on other top-spec variants. There are additional feature upgrades here like a touchscreen infotainment system that supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, 8-speaker music system and a reverse parking camera. All-in-all, Tata Motors is gearing up for the festive season with additional features on both Harrier and Safari.
Both these SUVs compete against MG Hector, Hector Plus, Jeep Compass, Mahindra XUV700 and even Scorpio N. With revised features and variant additions, Harrier and Safari fare better than they used to before.
