Tata Harrier.EV AWD Pulls A 24-Ton Military Tank [Video]
Tata Motors launched the much-awaited Harrier EV in India, earlier this month. As was announced previously, the carmaker has started commencing the 'Quad Day' experiences with the inaugural session being organized at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) in Noida. With this event, Tata Motors aims to demonstrate the abilities of the Harrier.EV to prospective buyers. Although it had a lot of interesting challenges, a particularly exciting moment was when the electric SUV towed a massive military vehicle right along the straights of the BIC.
Videos of this are now going viral on social media. Netizens are actively discussing the carmaker's confidence and the product's capability. The debut of AWD into the Tata lineup ( the now-discontinued Safari Storme and Hexa used to come with 4WD (four-wheel drive) and not AWD) seems to have been marked in Golden letters. From climbing the Elephant Rock to towing an armoured vehicle, this SUV seems to do it all well.
The military vehicle featured in this activity is the WhAP 8x8 (WhAP expands to 'Wheeled Armoured Platform') which Tata Advanced Systems co-developed with DRDO. It is in fact, India's first wheeled amphibious infantry combat vehicle, and weighs over 23 tons. It has four wheels on each side, all of which are powered- hence the '8x8' identifier.
The Harrier.EV itself weighs over 2300 kilograms (2.3 tons) and is seen pulling the military vehicle effortlessly. The two vehicles are seen moving at a decent speed. This depicts its incredible powertrain capabilities.
The All Wheel Drive (AWD) equipped Harrier.EV has a dual-motor setup that has a combined output of 313hp and 504 Nm. The rear motor alone can produce 235 horses. Interestingly, Tata Motors calls the EV's AWD tech ' Quad Wheel Drive' and this in a way, led to the experiential event being named 'Quad Days'.
Powered by a 75 kWh battery pack, the Harrier.EV also ranks as the fastest SUV in its segment and the quickest Tata ever made. It can sprint to 100 kph speed from a standstill in just 6.3 seconds! It should also be said that none of its rivals comes equipped with AWD.
More Action And Impressions From The Quad Day
Tata Motors organized several other challenges, obstacles and a few laps on the track, to make sure that the media got a proper taste of the EV. There was even a curated off-road course with all sorts of obstacles one could imagine for a vehicle of this sort. The Harrier.EV tackled every one of them with ease.
Along with the capabilities of its powertrain, these showed how well-tuned the Harrier.EV's suspension is. Tata Motors has given it a multi-link setup at the rear which it calls the 'Ultra Glide suspension', and modern tech like Frequency Selective Damping (FSD). Honestly, these aren't unseen in its segment, but feel well put together on the all-electric Harrier. The vehicle felt great to drive on both the track and the off-road course.
In addition to these, Tata has also given it six selectable terrain modes- Snow, Sand, Rock-Crawl, Mud Ruts, Custom and Normal- and an 'Off-Road Assist' function (Think of this as a cruise control for the trails, which would lock the vehicle speed at 5 kph and keep it moving).
Another off-road-centric feature is the 'Transparent Mode'. 360-degree camera is common in this segment and the ones below it. Tata has, however, added a camera to the undercarriage and hiked the coverage to 540 degrees.
This means that the driver will get to see the terrain underneath when he goes off-roading. Pus, the car also uses Augmented Reality (AR) to project its wheels onto the generated visuals. This will show the driver exactly where the wheels are going or pointed to.