Utility vehicles major Mahindra & Mahindra that purely produced Diesel-only models, was worst hit by the Supreme Court order on high-end diesel vehicle sales in Delhi. The company announced entry into the petrol segment with the unveiling of its first compact SUV, KUV100, which will come with both petrol and diesel engines. The company will commercially launch KUV100 on January 15. It will come in four models in petrol and diesel versions, executive director Pawan Goenka told reporters here after announcing the name of the new SUV and petrol engine.
Announcing the soft-launch of KUV100, Goenka said, "We are all set to create a new segment with the launch of the KUV100 which also marks our foray into ground-up petrol engines. I am confident the KUV100 become a popular brand and will be cited for taking Mahindra to a whole new orbit. Goenka said the company has spent close to Rs 500 crore to develop and design the new vehicle which has been in the making during the past four years. The KUV100 is built on a completely new platform based on mFaclon engine platform, and will be rolled out at and launched from the Chakan, Pune plant, he added.
CEO Pravin Shah said the product is targeted at the youth, a category M&M has been not really present in. Goenka said the five-seater SUV has applied for 18 patents and the engine is developed in-house in consultation with its Korean arm SsangYong and other Korean companies, primarily LG Engineering. KUV100 opens up a new segment and the company hopes to lure prospective buyers of Hyundai Grand i10 and the Figo from Ford. Goenka said all the eight variants of the KUV100 will have ABS and airbags as standard fits but it will not have automatic models now.
While the petrol engine, 1.2-litre mFalcon G80, is claimed to produce 82bhp and 114NM, the 1.2-litre D75 diesel may churn out a maximum power output of 77bhp and a peak torque of 190Nm. Goenka said the engine is designed in-house and engineered at the company's R&D facility, the Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai. On pricing, Goenka said though it can be revealed only at the launch on January 15, it will not disappoint potential buyers like other M&M offerings." But he was soon to add that the Mahindra group emeritus chairman Keshub Mahindra has already become the first customer and that pre-launch bookings will open from tomorrow.
Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan will be the brand ambassador for the KUV100 car, and the TVC featuring him will be aired soon. This will be the eighth launch by Mahindra this fiscal year, having already rolled out seven including souped up versions of the XUV500 with AMT options.
