A little more than a month after revealing the sketches and christening it, homegrown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra on Thursday has finally launched the TUV300 compact SUV starting at Rs 6.90 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune).
A compact sub-four metre SUV, M&M is positioning the TUV300 as a “a true blue SUV” and is expected to compete with the likes of Toyota Etios Cross, Hyundai 120 Active and Fiat Avventura
The TUV300 is an all-new SUV platform. It has been designed and developed in-house by the Mahindra design team. The research and development of Mahindra TUV300 has been carried out at the Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai, the company said.
The design of the Mahindra TUV300 has been inspired by a battle tank with raised shoulders, high front nose, flat roof, high ground clearance and straight bonnet, the company said.
Powering the TUV300 is Mahindra’s updated mHawk engine called the mHawk80. The engine, which will only be offered in a diesel guise, displaces 1,493 cc – just under 1,500cc – and qualifies the TUV300 as a small car.
Using a twin scroll turbo charger, the mHawk80 engine churns out 82.85bhp and 23.45kgm of torque. Power will be sent to the rear wheels via a five speed manual or an AMT gearbox.
Mahindra is offering the TUV300 with safety features such as dual airbags and ABS even on lower variants (as a paid option).
Mahindra and Mahindra suffered major decline in the utility vehicle segment due to poor rural demand. The situation exacerbated, when the company did not have any new product in the compact SUV segment, which currently constitutes 40 percent of the total volumes in the utility vehicles segment.
The vehicle will be manufactured in the manufacturing plant situated in Chakhan. The TUV300 has three variants on offer — T4, T6 and the top-spec T8.