Last month, the Supreme Court had announced its decision to ban registration of diesel vehicle with engine displacement of 2000cc (2.0-Litre) or above. The three-month suspension on registration of cars and SUVS with diesel engines over 2-litre capacity covers only the National Capital Region, including Delhi and neighbouring satellite cities. This ruling took a major hit on luxury car manufacturers and SUV makers in India like Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and of course Mahindra and Mahindra, who are the largest SUV manufacturer in the country.
The Supreme Court order has impacted M&M the most since its best-selling products - Scorpio, Bolero, XUV 500 and even the Thar - are all powered by diesel engines larger than 2.0-litres. In fact there were speculations in the market that Mahindra is planning to bring in a 1.9-litre engine for its SUVs in Delhi and NCR. According to recent reports, a prototype of the new Scorpio with the 1.99-litre engine has already been approved by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), and is expected to reach dealerships soon.
Now with this new 1.99-litre mHawk diesel engine, Mahindra will finally be able to continue the sales of its SUVs - Scorpio and XUV500 in Delhi and NCR, meeting the criteria of the Supreme Court. That being said, lower displacement doesn't mean that the engine is underpowered, as it will continue to deliver 120bhp in the Scorpio and 140bhp in the XUV500, same power figures as the previous mHawk engines.
Speaking on this occasion, Pravin Shah, President & Chief Executive (Automotive), Mahindra & Mahindra said, "This new engine, the development of which started in August 2014, is now ready for launch on both the New Generation Scorpio and the New Age XUV500. We do hope that our customers would enjoy driving these vehicles which deliver the performance of our currently on offer 2.2 litre mHawk engines".
