Cheaper Mahindra XUV500 Coming Soon, Ground Clearance Reduced

In our earlier report on Mahindra XUV500, we informed our readers that Mahindra & Mahindra is working on a more economical version of its flagship SUV XUV500. And like we reported Mahindra has reduced the ground clearance of the vehicle to avail lower excise duty. As against the earlier 200mm ground clearance, it has now been cut to 160mm to avail a 3% saving in excise duty, which will make it around Rs. 27,000-33,000 cheaper than before.

Speaking on the same, Mahindra & Mahindra president, Pawan Goenka said to PTI, "The price of the XUV500 will go down by between Rs. 27,000 and Rs. 33,000 as we produce the vehicle with the new specifications." As per this year's Union Budget, the government had announced that SUVs with engine capacity of over 1500cc and ground clearance equal and above 170mm would have to pay an excise duty of 30% against 27% before. The decision made several SUVs more expensive than before, and this has been the reason why M&M had to come up with such an alternate.

The company might alter other of its products as well, said Goenka. However, he didn't reveal much on the same. Other than the XUV500, Scorpio and Bolero are two Mahindra vehicles that became bound to pay higher duty after the budget. When asked whether the lower ground clearance would anyway affect XUV500's performance as an off-roader, he said that the company has added a 'stone guard' under the powertrain to protect from uneven roads. "I am not happy about doing this, but we had to do it as the higher price due to the increased duty was hitting our potential customers.", he added.

Apart from reducing the ground clearance, Mahindra has also made changes to the electronics, brakes and clutch system of the car. This is all what we have for now, stay tuned to CarDekho for more updates on the same. Cheers!

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