Mahindra & Mahindra has put India on to the global scenario with its newly design based SUV – the Mahindra XUV 500 . With this product, Mahindra now has 5 UV products in its portfolio.
The US $12.5 billion Mahindra Group has a fleet of UVs and it has given some of the sturdiest and rugged cars to India. Prominent among it was iconic Mahindra Jeep that had ruled Indian rural roads for decades. Later, not only did the Mahindra SUVs become more comfortable but powerful as well.
The recent addition— the XUV 500— is an absolutely new car, built from scratch by the Mahindra design team. The Mahindra XUV 500 is a global standard SUV that is going to embark the company on a world-wide platform. Originally codenamed Mahindra W201, the XUV500 received its name recently before its launch on September 29.
Pronounced as Mahindra XUV500 with the last to ‘00’ pronounced as alphabet ‘OO’, it symbolizes activeness and the agility besides the quickness it has as an SUV. Mahindra has arrived at the design of this SUV after an intensive research and survey that is said to have been conducted in various western markets besides India. Apart from this, the SUV also has been tested to be perfect on many destinations including Europe, Australia and South Africa. After launch in India, the Mahindra XUV 500 will be marketed in South Africa.
Besides the design, Mahindra XUV 500 features a unique exterior styling, an array of technologies that is nowhere visible in the SUVs already in place by Mahindra. In addition, the global design brings with it the global standards as well in this SUV. Mahindra’s Research Valley engineers have burnt their midnight oil to make this happen and it is with the help of their efforts that XUV 500 is able to be developed on global standards.
This is the first car from the Mahindra brand that is based on a monocoque chassis. Contrary to the conventional design in which the car is made of a frame and then it is covered with lightweight metal sheets, the XUV 500 body is a single piece body in which the body and chassis are one piece.
It also has the first-ever transversely placed engine by Mahindra and this has increased the passenger space inside and has also improved safety in case of an impact besides a larger crumple zone. Thus Mahindra XUV is much safer and crash resistant than any of the other Mahindra SUV offering. Land Rover LR2 Freelander and Volvo cars employ transversely placed engine in their cars. Such first in class features make this SUV at par with global standards. Incorporating such features has made XUV500 to compete with global SUVs in terms of global norms, safety regulations and emission standards. In India, XUV500 will create its own unique space and is place above Mahindra Scorpio and the big SUV daddies from India.
Mahindra XUV 500 has 2179cc mHawk engine that also powers the Mahindra Scorpio and now even the Xylo. The common rail diesel engine produces 140bhp which is enough to cruise the XUV500 on road or off-road. Most noteworthy is the torque which is 330Nm that lets the new SUV to move around easily even in snail-paced city traffic. There is a six-speed manual gearbox in XUV 500 with a torque on demand mechanism. There are two variants on the XUV 500, one is a two-wheel drive model while the other is a four-wheel drive model. Micro-hybrid technology is also used in the XUV500 for better fuel efficiency.
