Harrier dishes up diesel

CROSSOVER: THE ONLY OIL-BURNER IN ITS PRICE RANGE

- Jaco van der Merwe

The Tata Harrier leads the quartet of offerings the Indian carmaker recently came storming back into the local market with. The flagship mid-sized SUV was rolled out alongside the Tata Tiago hatchback, Punch crossover and Curvv coupe-styled SUV.

After getting to sample the Tiago and Punch out around Lanseria on the first day of a recent launch drive, we drove the Curvv and Harrier on the second day of the event.

Unlike Tata's first local entry where the Indica, Indigo and Telcoline offered competitive pricing against heritage brands, the local landscape has changed dramatically.

Now there are as many as 17 Chinese players who benefit from government subsidies to aggressively undercut their opposition, while many heritage brands build their cars in India nowadays to keep production costs down.

Tata can therefore ill afford to start a price war while its second coming is still in its infancy. And its previous products were simply not reputable enough for any sort of leverage to base its local return on.

This left the Indian carmaker with one choice. Offer what the opposition doesn’t. In the case of the Curvv, it’s very futuristic coupe-like styling.