Saar: The first of the specimens rolled off Tata Motors’ production line in Pune, Maharashtra.

Ever since Tata showcased the H5X Concept SUV at the 2018 Auto Expo, all of the car nutters across the country have been eagerly waiting to see the finished product. We knew it was christened as the Harrier and now it has shed its camouflage. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Tata Harrier in its final form. Disappointingly and predictably, it isn’t as outlandish as the concept we saw earlier this year but you have to say that it does look good.

So, what do we have? The X-shaped front end houses a multitude of lights, each of which has a different function. The slim eyebrows-like enclosures which flank the grille are the LED-powered DRLs. Just below them are the main, dual-barrel headlamp enclosures, with projector units on the inside barrel. Placed below those are the front fog lamps. At the bottom lip of the dual-tone front bumper is a faux splitter which accompanies a meshed grille.

The side profile is a bit of a bummer. We like the well-defined wheel arches and are well-on-board with the cladding that runs all around the car. The things we aren’t sure about are the oddly-shaped wing mirrors and the wheels which, frankly, look lost within those huge wheel arches. At the rear, the faux diffuser, accompanied by vents on either side (which we hope will house the outlets of the exhaust), the black casing that runs across the width of the SUV and the roof-mounted spoiler give the Tata Harrier a sporty character.

Tata Motors rolled out the first production-ready specimen of the Harrier from the newly developed production line in Pune, Maharashtra. The said production line was built within a span of 6 months. Tata Motors claims that it was developed with manufacturing inputs from Jaguar Land Rover and has 90 per cent automation levels with over 100 KUKA and ABB robots.

The monocoque SUV will be powered by a newly developed 2.0-litre Kryotec diesel engine and will become the first vehicle to boast Tata Motors’ Impact 2.0 design language. The SUV is built on the ‘Optimal Modular Efficient Global Advanced’ Architecture (OMEGA ARC) which is a derivative of the Land Rover’s D8 platform. The Tata Harrier is expected to launch in January next year but bookings are already underway.