Compact SUV’s are becoming a hot favorite among the Indian masses. Many car makers are trying to enter this segment and so is our own Indian utility vehicle maker- Mahindra & Mahindra. Mahindra has been testing the S101 for quite a time now and here on this page we have a fresh set of spy pics of the upcoming compact SUV. The S101 was spotted testing in Chennai and Bangalore by avid reader of Motoroids- Mr Santhosh and Mr. Aditya Kashyap.
The upcoming Mahindra S101 will feature a center console mounted gear lever. With the gear lever moved up to the console, the space on the floor is freed up. With the space freed up, Mahindra may use the 2+1 seating configuration at the front, somewhat similar to the setup seen on the Datsun Go hatchback.
Mahindra will be plonking the S101 with two new, highly modern, small capacity petrol engines from Mahindra. These engines are currently being developed with assistance from Ssangyong. While one of these engines would be a three pot unit, the other would be a four pot petrol unit. The upcoming engines won’t even be remotely related to any of the older Mahindra petrol engines. Mahindra could also offer the 1.5 liter, 3-cylinder mCR100 unit with S101 which currently powers the Mahindra Quanto.
Speaking about the upcoming engines, Dr Pawan Goenka, Executive Director M&M, has previously said, “We are currently working on two engines, a three and a four cylinder, coming out of the same platform. These would be mainstream engines for our petrol driven UV range and would power vehicles much smaller than what we have today. Our earlier petrol engines had some compromises because they were based on a diesel engine but our new petrol engines will be an independent, grounds up development and therefore it will be as good as any other petrol engine in the market at that time.”
Mahindra could likely christen this compact SUV as the XUV300 when it launches by the second half of 2015. The S101 is expected to be priced around the INR 5 lakh mark.
Seems like it’s a regular daily news, everyday…!! It’s on testing, hence it goes around the country.