Mahindra To Launch Four New Engines & Upgrade Existing Engines To BS-VI By Early 2020

Mahindra has revealed its BS-VI engine line-up. These new petrol and diesel BS-vi emissions compliant engines will make Mahindra's entire product portfolio BS-VI compliant way before the April 2020 deadline set by the government.

The first BS-VI compliant Mahindra vehicle is expected to be launched by September or October 2019. The Indian government is cracking down on automotive manufacturers to cut down on pollution levels.

The government is trying its best to give electric vehicles a push, but it would still take several years for the Indian market to warm up to the idea of electric vehicles though it is a segment that has been growing.

However, this does not stop the government from imposing new, stricter emissions regulations on the existing fossil-fuel-powered cars. Starting 01 April, 2020, all vehicles sold in the Indian market will have to be BS-VI emissions compliant.

BS-VI is similar to EURO-VI emissions norms enforced across Europe. Well, this decision of the government has sent a few automotive manufacturers scrambling back to the drawing board to redesign a few key engine components and add a few more components to make their vehicles BS-VI compliant.

Maruti Suzuki recently announced that its small cars will cease to be available with a diesel engine from April 2020. Honda 2 Wheelers India has taken to fuel-injection to make their bestsellers like the Activa compliant with the new emissions norms.

Now, Mahindra has gone ahead and announced the changes it would be making to its engine line-up. The Indian Auto Giant has announced a range of petrol and diesel engines that would power its cars for the next few years, starting from the next 2-3 months.

Mahindra is known for its brilliant diesel engines and a large majority of all Mahindra vehicles sold till date are all powered by diesel engines. The sale of petrol-powered Mahindra vehicles is negligible and cannot even be compared to the sales of their diesel-powered counterparts.

Mahindra will further build on this strength even during the BS-VI era. The evergreen 2.5-litre turbo-diesel engine in the Mahindra Bolero that has been around for ages will continue to do duty past April 2020 too.

It will be made available in two states of tune — 64bhp | 195Nm & 74bhp | 200Nm. The Mahindra Scorpio and XUV500 will continue to be sold with the same 2.2-litre turbo-diesel MHawk engine.

In the Scorpio, it will produce an output of 138bhp and 320Nm. In the XUV500 though, the output is bumped up to 153bhp and 360Nm. The engines powering the TUV300, XUV300 and Marazzo will also be upgraded.

In its BS-VI guise, the Mahindra Marazzo will produce an output of 121bhp and 300Nm. The 1.5-litre engine in the XUV300 on the other hand will produce 113bhp and 300Nm. Mahindra has not left its commercial vehicles out and has also announced BS-VI upgrades to the 600cc engine in the Jeeto and the 900cc engine in the Supro.

These updates will see the addition of a turbocharger to the small engines alongside the addition of other methods to reduce emissions. Mahindra has also lined up a range of petrol engines for the BS-VI era.

The 625cc single-cylinder engine that currently powers the Jeeto will be upgraded and it will be made available in two states of tune — 22.8bhp | 48Nm and 20.4bhp | 44Nm. The recently launched XUV300 comes with a 1.2-litre turbo-petrol engine that is currently BS-IV.

This engine will be updated to the BS-VI norms and will produce 108bhp and 190Nm. There will also be a direct injection version of this engine and that will produce 128bhp and 230Nm. The 1.2-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine in the Mahindra KUV100 will also be upgraded.

Mahindra has also revealed that it will be launching two new diesel engines and two new petrol engines as well. This takes the count to a total of eight diesel engines and eight petrol engines. As you might know, Mahindra and Ford entered into a partnership earlier this year.

As part of this partnership, Mahindra will be sharing the new petrol engines with Ford and those new engines might be found under the bonnet of the Ford EcoSport and Ford's upcoming compact SUV in a short while.

Thoughts On Mahindra's BS-VI Engine Line-Up

BS-VI emissions norms have posed a big challenge to the Indian automotive industry. All manufacturers have the capability to move to BS-VI, but that is a process that involves a lot of money and that would in turn push up the prices of the vehicle.

Hence, a few manufacturers are considering the end of a few models or variants. Mahindra however has decided to upgrade its entire product line-up. While it may be an expensive affair, it sure is going to be worth it.