Tata Motors has officially confirmed that it will launch two new premium SUVs in the Indian market next fiscal year. The company will introduce a five-seater SUV, which will be positioned above the Tata Nexon. This five-seater SUV will rival the likes of Hyundai Creta, Jeep Compass and others in its league.
On the flip side, the second SUV will be a seven-seater car. If media reports are to be believed, the homegrown automaker is working on the next generation Safari Storme. The SUV could be named Tata Merlin and testing of the car has already been started. This SUV is expected to be priced around Rs 20 lakh and will take on the likes of Toyota Fortuner, Honda CRV and others.
Both these SUVs will be developed on the Land Rover’s L550 platform, which also underpins the Land Rover Discovery Sport. These new SUVs will be powered by FCA’s 2.0-litre Multijet II turbodiesel engine. The new engine will offer two states of tunes – 140bhp on the five-seater SUV and 170bhp for the seven-seater model. As a reminder, this 2.0-litre MJD II turbodiesel engine is the same that also powers the Jeep Compass. It is manufactured at Tata-FCA’s production facility at Ranjangaon, Pune. Also Read – Upcoming Tata Cars In India
Both two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive versions of both models will be on offer. While the new SUVs will share platforms, the design of the models will be completely different. Development work of the SUV has already been commenced. It is expected that the premium SUVs will be unveiled at the 2018 Delhi Auto Expo.
Tata Nexon Images
