Mahindra is Testing Mini-Xylo Extensively

Mahindra is betting big on its Mini-Xylo in India. And for the same reason they have been testing the car for at least a couple of years now. 

Generally manufacturers try to pitch in a product as soon as they can so that they can start earning from the platform they have invested so much upon. However spy pics of Mini-Xylo started surfacing from many months back. Among all the other regular highway and in-city spy pics, this car has also been spied with zebra-stripes amidst all the snow under cold-weather testing in Northern Europe. The following pics from WorldCarFans published in February this year are a testimony to this fact.

Mahindra_Mini_Xylo_Europe

These pics also reveal that expectantly Mahindra would also use this product for its international markets as well. We also have traces of Mini-Xylo testing in harsh conditions of Leh and similar extreme regions.

Mahindra’s mini-xylo would come with a 1.5L 3 cylinder engine which is one cylinder slashed from the Xylo’s current mill. However, things do not end here; Mahindra has also played with engine dimensions. They also had to curb the vibration issues which is a characteristics of 3-cylinders. So, a rigorous testing was anyways needed for this product to ensure things do not go haywire.

Also, check out our scoop of Mini-Xylo 

Positioning of Mini-Xylo in India:

While this is known that this new compact SUV would be sub 4 meters in length in India and hence would enjoy the lesser excise duty advantage, it would be really interesting to see how would Mahindra position it here.

Their entry level Bolero is a mass seller and is clocking 9k monthly units on an average. Bolero starts at somewhere around 5.65 Lac (Ex-Showroom Pune) for the BS3 Plus Non-AC variants and 6.30 Lac (Ex-Showroom Pune) for the new BS4 SLE variant which produces 63PS/193Nm from its 2.5L m2DiCR engine.

Mahindra would have definitely planned Mini-Xylo to help them create a new segment and hence bring in more volumes adding to what Bolero gets them. A very attractive starting price of 4.5Lacs does look feasible for this car because if Mahindra goes much over this, it would definitely cannibalize into Bolero which we are sure they would not want to happen in major magnitude. If net-net 10-11k units are all both of these UVs garner, the point of introducing mini-Xylo would go nulled.

 

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