Introduction of its first internally developed gasoline engine heralds a new era for the automaker
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is working on a new family of petrol (gasoline) engines, said a top company executive. Mahindra is among the automakers most affected by recent efforts to control emissions in New Delhi. "We are already on our way to having a strong petrol portfolio. We have more petrol engines in the pipeline. We are currently working on the Scorpio and XUV500 petrol versions," said Pawan Goenka, executive director of M&M. "These products with a petrol option will not be available tomorrow but would be in the medium term," he added, without defining "medium term".
Goenka was speaking on the heels of M&M revealing its latest compact sport utility vehicle (SUV), which will be offered with a 1.2-litre petrol engine in addition to a diesel counterpart. The new 1.5-litre engines, developed on a modular architecture, have involved an investment of nearly INR5 billion (USD75.4 million). The engines meet BS-IV (Bharat Stage IV) emission norms and are capable of meeting BS-V and BS-VI emission norms, said Goenka.
Supreme Court expands the diesel vehicle ban to National Capital Region (NCR)
Meanwhile, the Environment Protection Control Authority (EPCA) has ordered Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonepat, Bahadurgarh and Jhajjar districts in Haryana, and Ghaziabad, Meerut, and Gautam Budh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh to stop registering vehicles with engines above 2.0-litre displacement. The order impacts autos, taxis, and buses that run on diesel. The EPCA has been tasked with implementing the Supreme Court's recent order that banned registration of diesel vehicles with engines above 2.0-litre displacement in the capital city until 31 March 2016. The pollution control body also ordered district authorities to stop issuing fitness certificates to diesel-run autos and taxis from 1 January and buses from 1 June. The meeting was attended by officials from the neighbouring states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan, among others. Following the orders, the ban on registration of new private diesel vehicles with engines above 3.0-litre displacement has effectively been expanded into the NCR.
Outlook and implications
The latest judiciary developments have been harsh for Mahindra, whose entire product line-up is currently powered by diesel engines. The 1.2-litre petrol engine is Mahindra's first gasoline powerplant on one of its models. The company had offered Renault-sourced petrol engines on its Scorpio SUV and Logan sedan (later renamed Verito) but phased out the versions following weak demand. Mahindra and its Korean subsidiary SsangYong also jointly developed a 1.6-litre petrol engine, although the engine is not yet offered on a Mahindra nameplate. Currently, the Mahindra Bolero, Scorpio, and XUV500 are powered by either a 2.5-litre or a 2.2-litre diesel engine, which makes these models ineligible for registration in the capital region until 31 March 2016. In absence of the Scorpio and XUV500 models in the region, Mahindra showrooms in the region will be relying heavily on the soon-to-be launched KUV100 and the recently introduced TUV300. In 2014, Mahindra sold nearly 211,100 units of the Bolero, Scorpio, and XUV500 SUVs, accounting for more than half of its light vehicle sales, according to IHS data. Although these vehicles were sold across the country, Delhi and the adjoining cities make one of the biggest clusters for SUVs.
Launch of the 1.2-litre petrol engine on the KUV100 SUV represents a trend that has already resulted in engine downsizing elsewhere in Mahindra. The TUV300 SUV – Mahindra's latest product available in the market – is powered by a 1.5-litre diesel engine, marking a departure from large-displacement engines. The downsizing resonates with another regulatory development of phasing out of subsidies on diesel fuel in recent years. This trend has greatly diminished the attractiveness of large SUVs, which are invariably offered with diesel engines. While D-segment SUVs continue to be powered by bigger engines, growth in the SUV segment in recent years has been restricted to compact versions.
Meanwhile, the arbitrary order from the Supreme Court underlines the lack of a proper legislative roadmap for emissions in India. India needs a clear roadmap to achieve environment-friendly solutions and a robust policy incentivising the scrapping of older commercial vehicles. The ban on diesel vehicles with engine displacements above 2.0 litres sold in the NCR area could affect about 2,500–3,000 vehicles per month. The order might also prompt other Indian cities that face similar air-quality issues to impose similar bans. Apart from Mahindra, luxury vehicle manufacturers will also be affected by the measure. Among the luxury OEMs, Audi and BMW have just one diesel engine each below the threshold while Mercedes-Benz has no diesel engine smaller than 2.0 litres on offer.
Copyright © 2025 S&P Global Inc. All rights reserved.
These materials, including any software, data, processing technology, index data, ratings, credit-related analysis, research, model, software or other application or output described herein, or any part thereof (collectively the “Property”) constitute the proprietary and confidential information of S&P Global Inc its affiliates (each and together “S&P Global”) and/or its third party provider licensors. S&P Global on behalf of itself and its third-party licensors reserves all rights in and to the Property. These materials have been prepared solely for information purposes based upon information generally available to the public and from sources believed to be reliable.
Any copying, reproduction, reverse-engineering, modification, distribution, transmission or disclosure of the Property, in any form or by any means, is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of S&P Global. The Property shall not be used for any unauthorized or unlawful purposes. S&P Global’s opinions, statements, estimates, projections, quotes and credit-related and other analyses are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact or recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions, and do not address the suitability of any security, and there is no obligation on S&P Global to update the foregoing or any other element of the Property. S&P Global may provide index data. Direct investment in an index is not possible. Exposure to an asset class represented by an index is available through investable instruments based on that index. The Property and its composition and content are subject to change without notice.
THE PROPERTY IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS. NEITHER S&P GLOBAL NOR ANY THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS (TOGETHER, “S&P GLOBAL PARTIES”) MAKE ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, FREEDOM FROM BUGS, SOFTWARE ERRORS OR DEFECTS, THAT THE PROPERTY’S FUNCTIONING WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THE PROPERTY WILL OPERATE IN ANY SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE CONFIGURATION, NOR ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO ITS ACCURACY, AVAILABILITY, COMPLETENESS OR TIMELINESS, OR TO THE RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE PROPERTY. S&P GLOBAL PARTIES SHALL NOT IN ANY WAY BE LIABLE TO ANY RECIPIENT FOR ANY INACCURACIES, ERRORS OR OMISSIONS REGARDLESS OF THE CAUSE. Without limiting the foregoing, S&P Global Parties shall have no liability whatsoever to any recipient, whether in contract, in tort (including negligence), under warranty, under statute or otherwise, in respect of any loss or damage suffered by any recipient as a result of or in connection with the Property, or any course of action determined, by it or any third party, whether or not based on or relating to the Property. In no event shall S&P Global be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees or losses (including without limitation lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs or losses caused by negligence) in connection with any use of the Property even if advised of the possibility of such damages. The Property should not be relied on and is not a substitute for the skill, judgment and experience of the user, its management, employees, advisors and/or clients when making investment and other business decisions.
The S&P Global logo is a registered trademark of S&P Global, and the trademarks of S&P Global used within this document or materials are protected by international laws. Any other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
The inclusion of a link to an external website by S&P Global should not be understood to be an endorsement of that website or the website's owners (or their products/services). S&P Global is not responsible for either the content or output of external websites. S&P Global keeps certain activities of its divisions separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain divisions of S&P Global may have information that is not available to other S&P Global divisions. S&P Global has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of certain nonpublic information received in connection with each analytical process. S&P Global may receive compensation for its ratings and certain analyses, normally from issuers or underwriters of securities or from obligors. S&P Global reserves the right to disseminate its opinions and analyses. S&P Global Ratings’ public ratings and analyses are made available on its sites, www.spglobal.com/ratings (free of charge) and www.capitaliq.com (subscription), and may be distributed through other means, including via S&P Global publications and third party redistributors.
