Mahindra Entering a Market

The Mahindra company is known for its SUVs and is one of the largest automakers in India. They are now coming into the automotive market in a way that you might find a little odd.  The Mahindra vehicle is to be a small crossover SUV that will be offed in the Indian market as their first entry.  This little SUV is made to be an affordable and easy to own vehicle that will give owners some great utility on the streets in India, but not much more than that at all.  Let’s take a look at this vehicle and you will see what I mean.

First of all, there is no need to worry that this SUV will make it to the US market; it’s not built for North America at all.  The vehicle is called the KUV100 and it stands for Kool Utility Vehicle.  This is to be the answer from Mahindra to the Renault Kwid which must be the only direct competition this vehicle can have.  The KUV100 is a size below the Ford EcoSport, Chevrolet Trax and Jeep Renegade to give you an idea of just how tiny this SUV (or KUV in this case) actually is.  This vehicle may overall be smaller than some compact sedans here in the US, but with the tiny roads in many of the cities in India this new offering might be a hit.

As for the engine we see an engine that is called the mFalcon which offers two versions, one gas and one diesel.  The displacement is exactly the same for both at 1.2 –liters and the gasoline version makes 82 horsepower while the diesel comes in with 77.  This will not give a vehicle that would sell in the European or North American market, but it will be quite a hit in India.

This KUV100 just might be what Mahindra needs to revitalize its lineup.  The vehicles that have been coming out of this company in the recent past have aged beyond their times and it’s time for a few new offerings.  There is to be another SUV offered that will be a bit larger called the XUV500 to go alongside the KUV100 and make for a pair of great vehicles to bring Mahindra back to its former glory.  Even if you were unfamiliar with the glory of the automotive industry that Mahindra has enjoyed, they have been one of the largest companies in the industry for years.

You may be more familiar with Mahindra as a manufacturer of tractors and farming equipment, but they have their hands in a wide array of industries.  These include information technology, financial services and aerospace in addition to agricultural equipment and automobiles.  As a group that employs over 200,000 people in 100 countries around the world, the success of Mahindra is important to the global economy, which makes creating a new lineup of great vehicles for their market very important.  Even though we often focus on our market in the US, nearly every country on the planet has some market of automobiles to make this a global industry.