Mahindra KUV100: Everything you need to know

After making big burly SUVs that are the favorites of most Indian customers, Mahindra is slowly and surely moving towards smaller and more efficient compact SUVs in parallel to their staple products for a more modern India. The KUV100 is the perfect example of such a car. A sub 4-meter SUV, the KUV100 will be a very important product from Mahindra in the near future and here are some things that you need to know about it.

Design and Exterior

The Mahindra KUV100 features an all new exterior design language that we haven’t really seen before in Mahindra vehicles before this. The front features an aggressive design with a slim upper grille and a more aggressive and larger bumper grille. The KUV100 also features pulled back headlamps with LED daytime running lights and fog lamps surrounded with a chrome bezel. At the rear, the small tail lamps and the angled tail gate does look. Mahindra will also offer many styling options to enhance the overall look which will include bumper addons, side skirts and skid plates.

Engines

The KUV100 will be Mahindra’s first ever SUV that gets the brand new mFALCON range of engines. Both the petrol and diesel engine will be new and will be 1.2-litres in terms of displacement and will feature a 3-cylinder construction. The petrol engine will be a naturally aspirated engine while the diesel engine will be turbocharged. Both engines will meet BS4 levels of emissions and are almost BS5 ready.

The petrol engine will be an all-new unit that is also incidentally Mahindra’s first ever in-house developed petrol engines. The new petrol engine, badged G80 makes 82PS of peak power. The engine is mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox. The diesel on the other hand is badged D75 and will make 77PS of peak power. There will be no automatic gearbox version of the KUV100 at the time of launch but there will eventually be an AMT gearbox version of the SUV in a few months.

Pricing and Launch

We think that the KUV100 will be priced extremely competitively when launched on January 15, 2016. Expect the base model petrol to be priced just over Rs 4 lakh with the top of the line variant priced at about Rs 6 lakh. The diesel engined versions will be priced at Rs 4.5 lakh for the base model and Rs 6.5 lakh for the top of the line variant. The KUV100 will essentially be priced lower than the TUV300 and will take on the likes of the Ecosport and other hatchbacks in the same price range.

Competition

The KUV100 will be an interesting vehicle in the Indian automotive segment as it will not only take on the likes of compact SUVs but also takes on regular family hatchbacks. The new compact SUV will get competition from the Ford Ecosport and the Maruti Suzuki Ignis crossover when it gets launched. The SUVs though are not Mahindra’s largest and real competition. What Mahindra really wants to do with the KUV is take on the average family hatchback like the Maruti Suzuki Swift and the Hyundai Grand i10 with the likes of the KUV100. And with the Indian audiences hungry for an aspirational vehicle, we wouldn’t be surprised if Mahindra KUV100 could actually make a dent.