One of Tata Motors most important vehicles launched last year — the Harrier — has completed one year. During this period the carmaker sold a little over 15,000 units of the SUV which employed Tata’s Impact 2.0 design philosophy.
The figures, according to Tata, might be impressive but is ridiculously lower than the other two launches in the SUV segment last year—the Kia Seltos or MG Hector.
Seltos, which is almost Rs 3 lakh cheaper than Harrier, has become the highest-selling SUV in the country with 45,294 dispatches in just five months, while Hector surpassed Harrier by selling 15,930 units in just six months. Even the old horse —the Hyundai Creta sells more than Harrier.
The below-than-expected performance of the SUV in the Indian PV market comes even as the car received good reviews by experts and has a strong road presence. Many also termed the aggressive pricing policy of rival carmakers and an overall slowdown in the demand for cars to have impacted Harrier sales.
The Harrier range starts from Rs 12.99 lakh and is available only in diesel variant, which is another setback of the SUV. It is powered by a Fiat-sourced 2.0-litre diesel engine and currently comes with a 6-speed standard manual gearbox. Harrier was the first vehicle to be built on the new OMEGArc platform.
To push sales, Tata Motors has now come up with #1WithMyHarrier campaign across the country where it is giving a host of benefits to its existing consumers.