Tata Harrier and Tata Safari 1.5 Petrol: A bold stroke but will it work?

It’s a bit counterintuitive. In an environment where urban air pollution is a major talking point and internal combustion engines are as villainous as a thug in a Bollywood action masala, launching a petrol engine is nothing short of a bold move. Yet, for one reason or another, the good folk at Tata Motors have gone ahead and introduced one into the motoring scheme of things. 

The brand-new petrol engine that has now found home under the bonnets of the Tata Harrier, Safari and the newly revived Sierra has been christened Hyperion and has even set a national fuel efficiency record, certified by the India Book of Records. In a certified run at the cutting-edge test track NATRAX a Tata Sierra powered by the new engine registered an astonishing fuel economy figure of 29.9kmpl over a 12-hour period. Tata will now be offering both the Harrier and the seven-seater Safari with this new petrol engine. 

The engine in question is a 1498cc four-cylinder petrol engine featuring turbocharging and direct injection. This BS VI Phase II compliant powerplant produces 170HP and a peak torque of 280Nm in the Harrier and the Safari. It’s an important point that we’re making here because the same engine under the bonnet of the Sierra produces a different max output. The peak power of 170 horses is achieved at 5500rpm, which most users are unlikely to access since the average Indian driver has a tendency to short shift (change up a gear before reaching peak revolutions of the engine), nine and a half times out of ten. The far more significant aspect of this engine is its ability to generate the maximum torque of 280Nm at engine revolutions as low as 1750rpm and then staying all the way through to 3500rpm. 

What this does, and it does so in both the Harrier and Safari, is offer good acceleration from the get go and a sense of linearity of motion. There are no sudden jerks when the turbo has spooled up or lurchy movements. There is a smoothness to the way the engine’s output is made available in both vehicles. 

In both cases, I tested the vehicle with a 6-speed automatic transmission, even though customers will also have the option of a 6-speed manual gearbox. Left up to me, I’d choose the automatic on most days for the sheer convenience of the thing, quite apart from the fact that it works really well with this new engine. Honestly speaking, I can’t tell you much about the fuel economy because there was no scope for a fuel run, but I can tell you that thanks to the turbocharging working in combination with direct injection, it is definitely going to be more fuel efficient than if you didn’t have these technologies at your disposal. 

Beyond the engine and transmission, both the Harrier and the Safari are built on the same OmegaArc platform that is a derivative of Land Rover’s D8 architecture. While the Harrier is a nice plush five-seater SUV, the Safari is its seven-seater form. Although the name Safari connects the vehicle to the SUV that Tata Motors had first launched back in 1998, that connection is in name alone. The new Safari, unlike its older generation, is no longer a body-on-ladder frame construction but a monocoque or unibody. It should also not be seen as a vehicle with off-roading abilities. In its nature, it is now very much an urban SUV, in spite of its big butch macho stance. The same can be said of the Harrier but in the case of the five-seater, there is no earlier legacy to live up to and will therefore escape the inevitable comparisons that lovers of the old Safari will indulge in, however misplaced they may be. 

Visually, both are striking and dominate the environment they are in with their presence. At over 4.6 metres long and nearly two metres wide, both the SUVs are large. Their very design makes them feel even bigger than they are. Almost on the verge of being intimidating when seen through the rear view mirror of a smaller car. And they don’t just feel big, they also feel solid. The doors are heavy and there is the reassurance of a thick metal cocoon at all times. Which, when combined with all the active and passive safety tech that your money can buy, should make you feel as secure as being in a tank. 

The interiors of both cabins are very snazzy and good-looking. I still have clear memories of testing the very first generation of the Harrier, quite some years back, and the contrast between the cabin of that and the one I was in, is palpable. The seats are nice and plush, doing a good job of providing both lateral support while allowing for adequate movement (important on those long road trips over an extended weekend). Personally, I preferred the devilishly cool red and black cabin of the Safari over the more restrained beige and brown of the Harrier. 

As happens with all press drives, both the Harrier and the Safari I had access to were absolute top-of-the-line vehicles. That means they had all the bells and whistles, and then some. Both had huge 36.9cm Samsung Neo QLED touchscreens with amazing clarity. Combine this with a 10-JBL speaker set up with Dolby Atmos, and you’re looking at an incredible cinematic experience that is guaranteed to blow your mind. But even without the music system in the game, the cabins are quiet and NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) are very well-controlled. There are no extra points for guessing that the in-cabin experience in both the Harrier and the Safari feel plush and sophisticated. Almost as refined as that of vehicles that are at least 20 to 30 percent more expensive. 

This feeling of refinement is further augmented by the plushness of the ride quality. While both the Harrier and the Safari offer a comfortable ride quality, the Safari feels a tiny bit plusher and pliant. At the same time, body roll is decently controlled. That said, you can feel the weight and length of the vehicles when you drive. These are big SUVs and they make their dimensions felt. There is no sensation of the vehicle shrinking itself around the driver as some SUVs do. The extra weight of the Safari can also be felt on medium fast S-es on the road. But it isn’t uncomfortable and neither will it sap confidence going into turns. At the same time, neither is a vehicle meant for canyon carving dynamics. Keep it steady at a decent turn of pace – not too quick, and the drive will be rewarding. 

Where I found both vehicles failing to reach the finish line is in the finishing of things. There are small finishing issues with some of the stuff on offer, almost bordering on trivial. But just enough to make you think, “Why did they not go till the very end? They have already come so far in what they are offering the customer.” 

For example, the rear-view mirror inside can act like a regular mirror or it can act as a screen for cameras placed both up front and facing the back. In this screen mode, you can even record footage (almost like an in-built dashcam) for both cameras. Super handy, except that in bright sunlight you get the distinct view of the camera footage being superimposed on the image in the mirror. 

Then there are the lovely looking faux aluminium accents on the door handles. Looks good and will make you feel good too, except for a spot where the accent edge feels sharp to the touch. You again get that thought, “Why did they not wrap the accent around the handle completely or smoothen it out?” On the Safari, the printing of the wrap on the otherwise snazzy dash seemed incomplete and left a distinct illusion of elements on the dash being not fitted flush.

The most irritating aspect of the vehicles is actually something that the folks who gave us the demo in the morning seemed quite proud of. When the vehicle is put in reverse, both the outside mirrors dip down to show the path below and next to the wheels. This is a very handy feature to have when you’re parallel parking. The only catch is, in right-hand-drive countries like ours, we will always parallel park to the left and vice versa in left-hand-driven nations. So you only need the mirror on the left to dip and the right to stay up so that you can still see what’s behind and on the right as you reverse to the left. When both mirrors dip together, the driver is suddenly blinded on the right, except for a camera feed in the digital instrumentation which ticks off the box that’s meant to let you see but isn’t very useful in reality. And then when you get the vehicle out of reverse, the mirrors don’t go back to the original position but to the last saved position on one of the three memory settings you get for the driver’s seat and mirrors. So, you’d better not drive without saving your seat and mirror position first into one of those three memory settings.

Having used the very old Tata Sumo, then the Indica, Nano, Indigo and Altroz for daily use at different times in my life, I’m extremely happy to see just how much Tata Motors has progressed in terms of both the product and the lifestyle they are offering. The products are well rounded and at par with the competition. They feel premium and plush too and someone choosing to put his or her money down on a Tata product won’t feel shortchanged at any point. So, depending on the price – both are yet to be announced – both the Harrier and the Safari are vehicles that aren’t difficult to recommend. More so because I’d guess that these would be in the Rs 20-25 lakh range. 

Only two things seem to be an obstacle. First, those niggling issues that give the feeling that perhaps a little more attention and thought to detail would have meant a better finished product, because these niggles aren’t manufacturing, design or process issues. Second, the market already has a bunch of options that offer similar turbocharged petrol engines with direct injection, which gives one that fuel economy and power edge, along with compliance with modern emission norms. That means Tata Motors will definitely have to work harder or find a special aspect of their particular version of that engine tech to give their products the edge.

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