Leading car maker Tata Motors on Tuesday formally introduced facelifts of its SUVs – Safari and Harrier.

The new Safari and Harrier have been launched at an introductory price of ₹16.19 lakh, and ₹15.49 lakh respectively. The previous variants have achieved combined volumes of more than 1.6 lakh units. Tata Safari was launched in a completely new format in 2021, while the premium SUV Harrier was introduced in 2019.

“While a lot of comfort features have been added in the new variants, the safety side has been given a stronger focus. Structural safety has been made more robust with the use of different grade steel, while in the load path, additional reinforcements have been given. Earlier the focus was on passive safety. But the new model has more active safety features too,” Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, told businessline here.

Both new SUVs have been certified with the GNCAP (Global NCAP) 5-star rating for adult and child occupant protection.

By securing scores of 33.05 out of 34 for adult occupant protection and 45 out of 49 for child occupant protection, the new Harrier and Safari are described as the safest vehicles. The two SUVs come with 7 airbags with six as standard across variants. Also, the new avatars of Safari and Harrier come with more than 50 connected features.

Planned cut

Discussing the company’s SUV sale trend, Chandra said Tata Motors’ lower SUV sales in the September quarter were the result of a deliberate move to cut production.

Though the company reported a marginal year-on-year growth in SUV volumes in Q1 of this fiscal, its SUV volumes in the second quarter of this fiscal were lower at 83,230 units when compared with 93,538 units in the year-ago quarter.

“The numbers came down as per plan. This June quarter was pretty much similar to Q1FY23. In Q2 of this fiscal, we had to plan the transition for SUVs – Nexon, Harrier, and Safari. We deliberately brought down the production and offtake as we wanted to clear the inventories before the launch of the new products,” he said.

Earlier, Nexon was selling about 15,000 units a month. But the company brought the numbers down to 7,000-8,000 units a month. Similarly, volumes (combined) of Harrier and Safari were brought down to 2,000 units a month. So, about 10,000 units a month for two months at least got impacted as a result of production rejig.

Other models grow

However, this was compensated by growth in other models such as the compact SUV punch, which saw an increase in volumes from the earlier level of 10,000 units a month to 14,000-15,000 units. Sales of Altroz also increased. Though there is an industrywide slowdown in the hatchback segment, its volumes for Tiago and Tigor were steady due to alternative fuel options such as CNG.

With the launch of the facelifts of Nexon, which was launched last month, and Harrier and Safari, the company expects to regain the volumes and achieve a dominant position in the SUV segment.

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