The Mahindra NuvoSport will be launched in India on April 4. This refreshed SUV is a facelifted version of the Quanto, but gets a revised exterior appearance. Also expected is an upgraded interior, improved drivetrain, build quality and handling. The latter bits will be evident when we get to drive the NuvoSport in the coming month. Till then, let's have a look at the things that have made the compact SUV an interesting proposition.
Firstly, the NuvoSport is a sub-four metre vehicle and is based on the compact new generation platform of the Scorpio. Considering the fact that any car under four metres in length in India gets excise benefits, we can expect Mahindra to price the vehicle competitively. If launched at a starting price of less than Rs 6.92 lakh, the NuvoSport will undercut the Maruti Suzuki Brezza and the Ford EcoSport by a good margin.
Looking at the appearance of the NuvoSport, it is pretty evident that Mahindra wants to get away from the MUVish looks of the Quanto. The NuvoSport is being promoted as an SUV and should also appeal to urban buyers. The changes up front have received a mixed response, but the job is commendable as the NuvoSport and the Quanto look noticeably different.
Feature wise, the NuvoSport gets LED daytime running lights, round fog-lamps and new five-twin-spoke alloy wheels, which the Quanto missed. Mahindra has packed the NuvoSport with some new equipment that includes a touchscreen audio system with Bluetooth and voice command recognition. We can expect the company to have used better quality materials in the cabin.
Mahindra is venturing into the new nomenclature for its cars instead of sticking to the earlier convention of using the 'o' letter to end the name of the vehicle. So even if the Nuv'o'Sport has an 'o' in it, it is different from the Verit'o', Quant'o', Xyl'o', Scorpi'o', XUV 5o'o', TUV 3o'o' and KUV 1o'o'.
The Mahindra NuvoSport is powered by a 1.5-litre three-cylinder mHawk diesel engine, which will be offered in two drive modes – Power and Economy. These modes have varying outputs as the engine puts out 74.6kW (100bhp) of power at 3,750rpm and 240Nm of torque at 1,600-2,800rpm. In the economy mode, the engine has a power output of 53.4kW (71.6bhp) and 180Nm of torque at 1,600-2,100rpm.
Apart from the conventional five-speed manual gearbox, Mahindra will offer the five-speed AMT (automated manual transmission) with the diesel variant. Though this is not a conventional automatic transmission, this AMT gearbox will add to the convenience with clutchless gear shifts.
Mahindra will offer the Nuvosport in six variants - N4, N4+, N6, N6 AMT, N8 and N8 AMT. The N4 will be the base variant and the N8 is the top-of-the-line trim that will boast of all the features.
