Here’s Your Clearest Look At The Mahindra Thar 5-door SUV

• Five-door Thar’s rear end gets only minor differences from the three-door version. 

• Unlikely to get a soft top option, but a plastic hard top with removable panels could be offered.

• Expected to get retuned versions of the existing Thar’s 2-litre petrol and 2.2-litre diesel engines with manual and automatic options. 

• Launch expected in early 2023. 

The off-roading lifestyle SUV segment is hotting up in India with several upcoming models on the cards. Yet again, the five-door Mahindra Thar has been spied, this time giving us our clearest view yet of the SUV’s rear-end styling and taillights. 

Here’s what we expect from the upcoming SUV. 

Five-door Thar to get familiar aesthetics

The latest spy sighting gives us a clear look at the five-door Thar’s rear design. As with the three-door model, the longer Thar will get a spare wheel mounted at the centre of the tailgate, which is still a split unit with a side-hinged lower half and top-hinged windscreen. The five-door model seemingly has a larger LED centre brake light than the three-door model, which gets a smaller unit placed behind the rear windshield. 

The rear overhang doesn’t seem much larger than the existing Thar, but the five-door model’s added wheelbase gives it enough room for a third row of seats. It also gets a distinct set of five-spoke wheels and squared out wheel arches similar to the Jeep Wrangler. We already know from previous spy shots that the longer Thar will get a similar front-end styling as the standard version. However, there are bulges on the bonnet that seem like hood scoops. 

While the three-door Thar offers a soft top option, we don’t expect the long-wheelbase version to do the same. However, it could get a plastic hard top with removable panels. A fixed metal hard top could also be offered.

Engine and hardware

The five-door Thar will get the same 2-litre petrol and 2.2-litre diesel engines as the existing Thar. The engines make 150PS and 130PS, respectively, but the outputs could be higher in the five-door model since it’s built to carry a higher payload of people and luggage. 

The Thar gets a six-speed manual gearbox as standard and offers the option of a six-speed automatic. These transmission options are expected to be unchanged in the longer Thar, which will get a 4x4 system as standard. 

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The five-door Thar is expected to be priced at a significant premium over the current model that retails from Rs 13.59 lakh onwards (ex-showroom). It’ll rival the soon-to-be-launched Force Gurkha five-door alongside the upcoming Maruti Jimny, which will also be a five-door SUV in India.  

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