Mahindra Scorpio XUV 500 complies with SC guidelines on diesel passenger cars

The 1.99L variants are aimed at circumventing Supreme Court’s ban on diesel cars with engines larger than 2.0L.

Responding to Supreme Court’s interim ban on diesel passenger cars with engine displacements higher than 2.0-litre in NCR, Mahindra & Mahindra announced 1.99L variants of its popular Scorpio and XUV500 SUVs in January. Both models are now on sale in NCR.

The Mahindra Scorpio 1.99L is priced between INR 9.67 lakhs – 12.75 lakhs while the XUV500 1.99L retails for INR 11.58 lakhs to 15.51 lakhs (ex-showroom, New Delhi). The detailed technical details have not been furnished by the company yet but the 1.99L mHawk four-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine produces 120 bhp and 280 Nm of torque under the hood of the Scorpio (identical to the 2.2L’s figures). Transmission is a 5-speed manual.

The Mahindra XUV500 1.99L produces 140 bhp and 320 Nm of torque (10 Nm lesser than the 2.2L). Drive is sent to the front wheels via a 6-speed manual transmission. The 1.99L variants of the duo are currently not available in automatic or 4×4 avatars.

Mahindra says that it has been working on the 1.99L engine for quite sometime now and was waiting for a right time to introduce it. The new engine is likely a downsized version of the 2.2-litre mHawk.

The Mahindra Scorpio 1.99L and XUV500 1.99L are currently available only in NCR. The SC’s interim ban has a validity till March 31, 2016, but it could very well be extended further. If that is to be the case, we would be witnessing several automakers following Mahindra’s way of circumventing the ban.

This article first appeared on rushlane.com