India’s largest UV manufacturer, Mahindra, is developing a complete new range of engines. They range from 1.2-litre to 1.6-litre in capacity, in both petrol and diesel guise which will power the future lineup of Mahindra compact cars and SUVs. The company has invested about Rs. 4300 crores into this project and is developing them in partnership with its subsidiary, SsangYong at Mahindra’s research and development centre, the Mahindra Research Valley (MRV), near Chennai.
Mahindra is most probably developing 3 petrol and 3 diesel engines. The smaller capacity 1.2-litre engines will be 3-cylinder and the bigger 1.5-litre and 1.6-litre units will be 4-cylinder. Mahindra are also developing two all new gearboxes, a 5-speed and a 6-speed. A new trans-axle too is being developed for transverse applications. It is speculated that well known engine specialist from Austria, AVL, too has been roped in by Mahindra as consultants for this ambitious project.
Mahindra will use the 1.5-litre diesel engine as the main engine for its new range of compact SUVs, currently codenamed S101/2, which was caught testing recently. This new engine is expected to produce more than 110 BHP of power. These new engines are expected to reach production by end of 2014 or early 2015. Mahindra may discontinue the Renault 1.5-litre K9K engine, in the future, from the Verito and use one of their own engines to reduce costs. The bigger UVs, Scorpio, XUV500 and Xylo will continue to use the 2.2-litre mHawk engines but the 2.5-litre CRDe (mEagle) engine will be discontinued.
Source – Autocar India