Tata Motors has been testing the facelift versions of the Safari and Harrier in India for a long time now but the former has been seen in South Korea recently sparking curiosity.
In an interesting piece of information, the Tata Safari facelift has been spotted testing in South Korea. We know that South Korea is the native market of the second largest carmaker in India, Hyundai Motors. The facelift of the Tata SUVs has been due for a long time now. When these were first introduced in our market, they were among the most popular. However, with time, the competition in the segment grew, particularly with the launch of SUVs from the other Indian auto giant, Mahindra and the Harrier and Safari kept losing market share. With the facelift due, Tata Motors aims to revive its lost market share.
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Tata Safari Facelift Testing in South Korea
These images have been shared by autonation_india on Instagram. They showcase a heavily camouflaged version of the Safari being driven on the road. As per the information in the post, this happened on the Gyeongbu Expressway connecting Seoul to Busan. It is the second oldest and most heavily travelled expressway in South Korea. The test mules, albeit camouflaged, reveal a few key design details. This includes a vertically-stacked headlamp cluster and a redesigned front grille. In addition, the alloy wheels are also new since they are deliberately being covered.
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The South Korean Connection
If you are wondering why the Safari is being tested in South Korea, the reason could be fairly simple. The automatic transmission in Safari is sourced from Hyundai. Hence, it is possible that Tata wants to test the new version of that gearbox in its home market. If there are any tweaks needed, these could be fixed easily in South Korea rather than in India. This also indicates that the facelift Harrier and Safari will continue to get that Hyundai-sourced automatic transmission going forward.
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Apart from that, we know that Tata doesn’t have a high-performance petrol engine in its fleet. The rivals in the segment boast powerful turbo petrol mills. That makes their prices more accessible to a wider range of audiences. Therefore, it is also possible that the Safari might be used as the test mule with a turbo petrol engine developed by Hyundai. If that were the case, the facelift Safari and Harrier will become much more desirable in the Indian market and the competition will be even stiffer. It will only benefit the buyers who will have a wide range of choices.
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What We Think
It is almost clear that the only reason to test the facelifted versions of the Tata Safari in South Korea is that some component of Hyundai is being tested in it. While we know for sure that the automatic gearbox will be sourced from Hyundai, as is the case for many years now, the rumours regarding a turbo petrol engine for Safari from Hyundai are rather interesting. Nonetheless, we shall wait to see what this South Korean testing is all about at the launch which is slated in the near future.
