Tata Harrier to Become More Affordable with Petrol Engine

Tata Harrier was originally launched a year ago, but since then it was quite frequently tagged as incomplete product.

Initial niggles, unavailability of auto-box, lack of features and comparatively higher price point were few reasons behind that tag. Soon, Tata Motors realized the fact and swiftly acted upon it and made it a near perfect product. Now, if we nitpick, Harrier only falls behind the competition on higher entry level price point front. Don’t worry, company is planning to deploy their pawn – the Harrier petrol, on that front too.

Tata Harrier Petrol

Currently powered by 2.0 liter multi-jet diesel mill, Tata Harrier may soon undergo the heart transplant surgery. According to reports, company is working on a turbocharged petrol motor which will debut in their flagship SUV. The details of the engine under development are scarce at the moment. Reportedly, it will be a 1.5 liter turbocharged direct injection (T-GDI) unit, producing power close to 180 bhp. Just for reference, in current state of tune, it’s 2.0 liter oil burner produces 170 bhp. So, the rumored engine will bring double benefits to the product i.e. more accessible price and more power. This will be an all-new powerhouse derived from current 1.2 liter Revotron engine powering Nexon, which produces 120 bhp. To facilitate this upgrade, the engine may gain additional cylinder too. Kudos to Tata Motors for their dare of developing all new engines, one after the other.

Why Petrol?

The simple answer to the question in title above is nothing but market demand.

Why such demand exists is mainly because of government regulations around vehicular emissions. Firstly, in markets like Delhi, due to the ban on diesel cars older than 10 years demand for petrol powered alternative has gone up.

In future, boundaries of this ban may include other major cities too, which will then further add to this demand. Then with this engine, company will seek to comply with upcoming CAFE norms too. Set to come in effect from the year 2022, these norms set the upper limit for average CO2 emitted by all cars from the brand. So, in future, company must have such petrol engines bringing down the average value. Lastly, adhering to BS VI norms have added to cost of bigger diesel engines, which leaves a vacuum for such petrol motor.

The Launch

There are different opinions about probable launch date of Harrier petrol, where some see it getting launched by Diwali this year and some giving next year’s timeline. When launched, it may bring down the launch price of Harrier to sub 13 lakh INR levels. Apart from Harrier, the same engine could also power the 7-seater Gravitas. Then, either the existing 1.2-liter Revotron or a de-tuned version of this new engine could find its way under the hood of Altroz based sedan. Time will reveal details as it passes, but till then we would like to know your opinion on the company’s this move.

Source: Autocar.in