Tata Harrier.ev Quad Day Experience

Until recently, your best choice in the home-grown e-SUV space was the Nexon EV and XUV400. That finally changed with the introduction of the Mahindra XEV 9e, and now Tata Motors has entered the fray with the Harrier.ev. However, unlike the competition, the Harrier comes with a standout feature – all-wheel drive, or as Tata likes to call it, quad-wheel drive. To give us a taste of what it can really do, Tata invited us to their Quad Day event, which put the SUV’s on- and off-road capabilities on display.

Before we hit the track for a proper lap around the BIC, Tata’s test drivers lined up two Harrier.evs side by side for a drag race. The top-spec electric Harrier packs a dual-motor setup churning out 155 bhp at the front, 235 bhp at the rear, and a combined torque of 504 Nm. Tata claims it does the 0 – 100 km/h sprint in just 6.3 seconds. While we didn’t get to test it ourselves, it was still a thrill experiencing its full-throttle punch. The verdict? It’s fast and remarkably linear in the way it builds speed. For the record, we even came out on top in our drag race.

Next, a hot lap around the the BIC but unfortunately, we were relegated to the passenger seat. Still, it was enough to show that the Harrier.ev isn’t just engaging for the driver – it’s plenty entertaining for everyone inside. Off the line, it feels a bit hefty, but after that, it transforms into a composed, direct, and surprisingly agile SUV. Regardless of how our driver pushed it around corners, it never felt out of its depth or stepped out of line. Sure, there was a constant squeal from the tyres trying to rein in this 2.3-tonne behemoth, but it stayed glued to the tarmac.

Then came the part we’d all been waiting for – our chance to get behind the wheel for a spin around Tata’s custom-built off-road course. Our instructor started off by walking us through the various off-road modes – Normal, Snow/Grass, Mud-Ruts, Sand, and Rock Crawl. Alongside these, two interesting features stood out. The first was off-road crawl mode, which keeps the SUV moving at a steady pace across offroad obstacles. The second was Transparent Mode, which uses cameras to give you a view of the terrain ahead and underneath.

The course was cleverly designed to show off each of these modes. We tackled a rock pit, axle twister, a sand pit, a brutal 34-degree incline, mud and ruts, a gravel trap, and even a camel hump section. Through the first few obstacles, it became clear that the Harrier.ev’s smooth throttle delivery helped it glide through sand and rocks and power up the steep incline without breaking a sweat. Then came a trickier challenge – driving onto a see-saw, stopping midway, and letting it tip us down onto the hump. Designed to test the approach and departure angles, along with ground clearance, it made it through unscathed. Our final tests were a deep slush pit, to test the off-road crawl mode, and a steep stair climb that put the hill-hold and hill-descent controls to work. Both performed flawlessly.

All in all, the event did a solid job of showcasing the Harrier.ev as India’s first truly affordable electric SUV that can back up its performance credentials with genuine off-road capability. Of course, this was just a glimpse of what it can do. We’ll save our complete verdict for when we get more seat time at the official first drive event in a couple of weeks.