Mahindra S101 Compact SUV Caught Testing, to Rival EcoSport and Duster

CarDekho has been constantly updating you on the Mahindra S101 (codename), which will be the company's first compact SUV in India. And it will be positioned against the highly popular Renault Duster and the much awaited Ford EcoSport. The New Compact SUV is rumoured to be priced as low as Rs 5 lakh, making it the most affordable SUV in the country.

A couple of months back, AutoCar India rendered the speculative design of the vehicle, which looked to have been inspired from the company's flagship SUV, XUV500. Now guys at Motor Vikatan caught the vehicle doing test-runs (Image no. 2 & 3), however, the vehicle was entirely covered, so it isn't clearly visible. There are parts like bumpers and headlamps missing, but you can figure out the basic design of the car similar to that of the rendered image.

What you can still figure out from the caught image is the stop light cluster placed on both side of the tail gate, while on Scorpio and Quanto it is placed vertically on the D-Pillar. You can also see that the bonnet style is a clamshell one. The roof-line too is a little sportier than other Mahindra vehicles. One more thing to notice here is the two-box shape of the car, clearing that it might be shortest of the compact SUV available out there in terms of interior space.

The report published in Autocar India had also claimed that the vehicle will also share many features with the premium SUV, the XUV500. The new Compact SUV is likely to come both in the petrol and diesel motors and might have a front-wheel drive option.

Mahindra is also working on a new six-speed gearbox, which we can see in the compact SUV. There were many claiming the vehicle to come in a six-seater and an eight-seater capacity versions however, we believe that it will very tough to turn a two-box, sub-4 meter into an eight-seater vehicle. The Mahindra S101 is a part of M&M's all new range of front-wheel drive (FWD) vehicles, which also includes a sedan and is likely to be launched in years to come.

This is all what we have for now, stay tuned to CarDekho for all the latest updates on Mahindra's compact SUV, cheers.

1st Image Credit- AutoCar India

2nd and 3rd image Credit- Motor Vikatan

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