Tata Motor's top-end seven-seater Buzzard SUV to be called Cassini in India

Tata Motors showcased the seven-seater version of the Harrier SUV at the Geneva Motor Show called the Buzzard, however, when launched in India, the seven-seater SUV will be dubbed the Cassini. The name Cassini is inspired from the Casini-Huygens mission which was a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. The Tata Cassini is expected to be the flagship model which will sit above the Tata Hexa and could be priced between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 21 lakh. With this pricing, it could share the market space with the Toyota Innova and the Mahindra XUV500. [caption id=“attachment_6209801” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Tata Buzzard SUV, now Tata Cassini, is a seven-seater variant of the Tata Harrier.[/caption] Like the Tata Harrier, the Cassini, too, is based on a platform derived from the Land Rover Discovery Sport and adopts Tata’s Impact 2.0 design language. Visually, the Tata Cassini looks similar to the Harrier, donning the slim LED DRLs, a honeycomb grille, flared wheel arches and the three-dimensional taillights. The Cassini is based on the OMEGA platform which is a derivative of the Land Rover’s D8 platform. Powering the new seven-seater SUV will be the same Fiat Multijet 2 derived Kryotec diesel engine, however, it will be tuned to have a higher output of 172PS, similar to the Jeep Compass. The engine is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox, but unlike the Compass, Tata will also have the option of a six-speed torque converter automatic transmission that it has sourced from Hyundai. There is no official word from the manufacturer about the launch of the Tata Cassini, however, we expect the Tata’s seven-seater to go on sale in India by this festive season, weeks after the launch of the Altroz.