Tata officials confirmed on 21 August that the company will introduce two new SUVs in the next fiscal year. The new launches are expected to be a five-seater SUV and a seven-seater SUV.
The upcoming five seater SUV could be a premium compact SUV placed above the Tata Nexon. The five seater SUV is targeted at a price of Rs 13 lakhs, and will take on the Hyundai Creta, Nissan Terrano and Renault Duster.
The seven-seater one, on the other hand, is expected to have a price tag above Rs 15 lakhs and will square up against the upcoming Mahindra Scorpio. Our guess is that Tata is working on the next generation Safari.
Both these SUVs will be based on the L550 platform borrowed from the Land Rover Discovery Sport. However, Tata Motors will use FCA’s 2.0-litre Multijet II engine that will be offered in two states of tune - 140hp on the five-seater SUV and 170hp for the seven-seater model. The 2.0-litre Multijet II is the same engine that powers the Jeep Compass and is also manufactured at Tata-FCA’s joint facility at Ranjangaon, Pune. If this car turns out to be the next generation Tata Safari, the company will surely offer a four-wheel drive-drivetrain as an option.
