Toyota Harrier – What is it?

You read it right, it’s Toyota Harrier and not what you are used to hearing.

So what is this Toyota Harrier and why would a manufacturer use name of the already existing car in the market. All these questions in your mind will be answered in this article.

Also, find out if this car is a competition to the Tata Harrier?

Why the name?

Harrier is not a new name for Toyota and at least for the international market. The upcoming Toyota Harrier is the fourth generation of the SUV and the first generation of the Harrier was launched way back in 1990 in Japan. Technically the Tata Harrier is the newer car. Also, there is no harm as this car has no plan of launching in the Indian market yet.  Now moving on to the next question, what is this SUV?

What is this SUV?

The upcoming SUV is based on Toyota’s TNGA platform, the same platform of Toyota’s popular RAV 4. The SUV maintains coupe-like design language and has very sleek curves. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like a Toyota at all. It looks rather like a Lexus design. The long bonnet and sleeker headlamps outshine the SUV. From the rear, it gets LED taillamps that get mated with a horizontal strip. The rear somehow reminds of the Jaguar F-pace. Nevertheless, the chrome strip on the front grille does remind you, that it’s a Toyota.

Moving on the powertrain, the SUV will get a 2.0-litre direct-injection, a four-cylinder unit that churns out 171 bhp max power and 207 Nm of peak torque.

It will be then be mated with the CVT gearbox which is standard for all variants. There will also be a 2.5-litre petrol hybrid model that produces around a combined 218 bhp max power (IC plus electric motor). The four-wheel-drive model will get an additional 40 kW of power to the rear wheel to get that extra punch at the rear wheel that hikes the overall output from 218 bhp to 222 bhp.

Features

The Toyota Harrier features all-LED headlamps and taillamps. Inside the cabin, it gets 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system, touch-sensitive controls for the AC, auto headlamps. There is an electric panoramic sunroof, JBL audio system. The safety features include a digital rearview mirror, collision mitigation sensor, multiple airbags, child ISOFIX, etc.

India Launch

To be frank, there is very small chance for this SUV to arrive this in India. However, Toyota in India will have very interesting launches in the future that will include special edition Toyota Fortuner, Toyota Yaris for the fleet market and much more. These might include a Brezza competition SUV instead.  If you are into SUVs then you show not miss out on 5 reasons why Toyota Fortuner is an amazing SUV