Report - Tata Safari Storme facelift to launch in mid-2015

The Storme facelift would get the more powerful 2.2L engine.

A report on Autocar India states that the refreshed Tata Safari Storme will launch by the middle of 2015, and will come with cosmetic as well as mechanical updates.

The Storme facelift's front fascia was revealed in a spyshot recently. It gets a new honeycomb grille, a redesigned lower air intake and mildly tweaked foglights. However, Tata is expected to make more significant changes inside the car.

The report says that an all-new dashboard with a slot for a large touchscreen unit will be seen. The top-end Storme would get the same touchscreen unit as the one available on the Aria, which also doubles up as a monitor for the reverse camera.

In terms of seating, the Storme facelift will ditch the jump-seat arrangement for a front-facing third row of seats. The second row could get comfier captains chairs on the top-end model.

Finally, the refreshed Storme will get the more powerful version of the 2.2-liter VARICOR diesel engine. Where the current Storme makes 138 bhp, the refreshed model is expected to develop 10 bhp more, but the 320 Nm of torque will remain unchanged.

Also read: Tata Nano facelift continues testing

For now, the Storme and the Aria come with a 5-speed manual transmission, but Tata Motors have showcased the Aria with a 6-speed automatic transmission at the Indonesia Motor Show last month. The automatic transmission, according to reports, is not merely a showcase and would be offered on these cars sooner or later.

Competitors: Renault Duster, Nissan Terrano, Mahindra Scorpio
Expected Price: INR 10-14 lakhs, ex-Showroom
Launch date: By mid-2015

[Source - Autocar India]