Tata Safari.EV Spied Testing Ahead Of Diwali Launch
Tata Motors has long been working on its first electric three-row SUV, the Safari.EV. Previous spy sightings had confirmed the vehicle to have entered the road-testing phase. The latest visuals give us a closer look at its front and side designs.
This sighting is from Bengaluru and has been shared online by the content creator ‘Kochimachan’. In the video, we see a heavily camouflaged test mule of the Safari.EV moving along the main road and taking a detour.
Even though there is camouflage on the car, we can figure out that the front design will have significant differences on the EV. It will get a new grille section (likely a closed-off unit, the design details of which are not visible in this video), new bumper and restyled headlamp housings. LED DRLs are visible in this video. No connecting light bar can, however, be seen.
As the car drives away, we also get to notice its wheels. The Safari.EV will have aero-optimized wheels, neatly concealed by the camouflage. The rest of the side view resembles that of the internal combustion version. The roof line and window line remain identical. The EV also seems to have an integrated side step- something that’s absent on the internal combustion version.
Going by previous sightings, the rear design is likely to remain largely unchanged. The tail lamp cluster may feature minor design tweaks on the EV, and the rear bumper could also be restyled. Additionally, the production form will also have multiple ‘.EV’ badges at various places of its design.
Overall, the Safari.EV will have the internal combustion version’s tall stance and butch proportions. Clearly, there will be a generous sharing of parts and panels between the internal combustion and EV versions. This will help in achieving better economies of scale. The colour palette is also likely to be revised on the EV. New, more upmarket shades are likely to be introduced.
This EV project is internally codenamed ‘Tayrona’ and the production version is expected to arrive during the festive season this year. It will also be a milestone moment for the carmaker as then, all of its models will have both internal combustion and EV versions to them.
The Safari.EV will become Tata’s new EV flagship when launched and will be positioned above the Harrier.EV. It is expected to get a modern-looking cabin and a long list of features. A lot of these features will be shared with the internal combustion version and the Harrier.EV.
Tata Motors will base the Safari.EV on the Harrier.EV’s Acti.EV+ platform. It will have a multi-link rear suspension that will use frequency-dependent dampers. The Acti.EV+ platform is equipped with TiDAL (Tata Intelligent Digital Architecture Layer) electrical and electronic architecture, which allows the integration of more complex connected car, over the air and ADAS features. It also enables the integration of a 540-degree camera, low-speed cruise control and more. All these are already available on the Harrier.EV.
Tata Motors hasn’t revealed any detail of the electric Safari’s battery options. It is likely to borrow them from the Harrier.EV. However, there are also reports that a new 80KWh unit will be offered on the e-SUV. Time remains before we find out. The Safari.EV will be offered with Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) and All Wheel Drive (AWD) options, and will come with selectable terrain modes.