Since Tata rebranded the Gravitas as the Safari, the hype for the SUV has increased significantly. Recently, the Safari was caught on video, the rear, third quarter and the roof of the SUV was camouflaged while the rest of the SUV was white in colour. The video has been uploaded by The Fat Biker on his YouTube channel. From the video, we can make out how the road presence of the 2021 Safari might feel like. We can see that Safari seems huge on the road. We also see the Safari side by side to an older generation of Toyota Innova which looks much smaller when compared to the Safari. There are sleek LED tail lamps and a high mounted stop lamp.
We can also see the side profile of the SUV. Major differences are only in the rear third quarter of the bodywork. We can see the elongated rear overhang and the stepped roof that Tata says is inspired from the original Safari. However, this has also been done to accommodate the third-row of seats. This design will also help in opening up headroom and space for the people that will sit in the third-row seats.
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Speaking of the rest of the design of the SUV, most of it will be similar to the 2020 Harrier. We can see the door handles with a chrome strip on it just like on the Harrier. The front also is just like the Harrier except for the fact that it gets a different grille. The grille is finished in chrome and gets tri-arrow elements for a more premium effect. There are split design headlamps. So, the LED Daytime Running Lamp is placed above while the part-projector headlamp is placed below. Tata Safari is underpinned by OmegaARC platform that underpins Harrier also.
The platform is derived from Land Rover’s D8 platform. The platform is specifically made for India to lower the costs and customize as per the market’s need. The Safari uses a monocoque chassis instead of a ladder frame chassis which was used for the previous Safari. The new Safari will only be a front-wheel-drive SUV. Whereas, the previous one was a rear-wheel drive or an all-wheel drive. Many purists are disappointed by this as Safari has always been an off-road capable SUV. However, Tata Motors has said that the OmegaARC platform does support all-wheel-drive powertrain and even electrification. So, we might expect an all-wheel-drive Tata Safari that gets launched afterwards. All-wheel drive variant is also important for Tata because there is a high chance that the upcoming MG Hector Plus and the Mahindra XUV500 will come with an optional all-wheel-drive powertrain in their top-end variants.
The feature list of the Gravitas will also be extensive. It will get cruise control, multi-function steering wheel, driving modes, panoramic sunroof, electric parking brake, floating touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and much more. Tata will also offer a bench seat or a captain seat arrangement for the second row. Powering the Safari will be the same 2.0-litre Kyrotec diesel engine that we have seen on the Harrier. The engine produces 170 PS of max power and a peak torque output of 350 Nm. It will be offered with a 6-speed manual gearbox or a 6-speed torque converter automatic gearbox. Tata will be offering the Safari with four variants, namely XE, XM, XT and XZ. The starting price of the Safari is expected to be somewhere around Rs. 14.5 lakhs ex-showroom and it is going to launch on 26th January.
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