Diesel SUV ban: Mahindra mulls petrol, smaller diesel engines

The Supreme Court's order banning the registration of cars and SUVs with diesel engines larger than 2,000cc in Delhi and cities falling under the NCR, is likely to have a big impact on the sales of Mahindra vehicles as most of the company's best-selling products, such as the Bolero, Scorpio and XUV500 use 2.2-litre and 2.5-litre diesel engines. There is an inventory of over 1,000 vehicles with dealers in NCR and the company is working on shifting them out and selling them in other parts of the country.

Mahindra has disclosed that is trying to come up with solutions to make their vehicles eligible for registration once again in Delhi-NCR. Among these is the introduction of petrol engines and smaller diesel units.

Mahindra already sells the Scorpio and XUV500 with petrol engines in some export markets. However, in India, customers are more inclined towards purchasing the diesel variants of SUVs as a result of which, the company did not introduce the petrol versions in the country. While the company is now considering launching the petrol variants in India, it is not likely to do so in the course of the next few months. They will be available in the medium to long term and only after the company evaluates the demand for such products.

Apart from the introduction of petrol engines, Mahindra is also studying the feasibility of downsizing its current diesel engines to less than 2 litres.

Source: Autocar Professional