Next-gen Mahindra Thar confirmed by company MD - Report

03/03/2017 - 10:37 Mahindra Thar, Mahindra Sagar Parikh

Mahindra's iconic off-roader will get redesigned for the second generation.

The Mahindra Thar arrived in 2010 and received its mid-life facelift in 2015. Dr Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra has confirmed that the company will launch second-gen Mahindra Thar, as per a report from Autocar India.

2015 Mahindra Thar facelift front quarter — The next-gen Mahindra Thar may have inputs from Pininfarina and SsangYong.

The next-gen Mahindra Thar is still far from production. The report suggests that the company is yet to finalise the design of the new generation model. Besides Mahindra's Indian design team, Pininfarina and SsangYong may have inputs to the second-gen Thar. "For every vehicle that Mahindra develops, we will seek three proposals for its design. One each from Ssangyong, Pininfarina and our team," said Dr Goenka.

Mahindra is working on some advanced features for its vehicles. The report says that wireless mobile charging, memory seats and Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, as well as intelligent and assisted driving features technologies are in the works. The next-gen Mahindra should get these features to expand the equipment list that currently includes only air-conditioning and 2-DIN music system.

2015 Mahindra Thar facelift side — Mahindra may offer the next-gen Thar with a petrol engine to cater the export markets.

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Mahindra may continue selling the next-gen Thar in international markets, and thus, a petrol model is likely in addition to the obvious one or more diesel models. Mahindra and SsangYong are working on a new 1.5-litre petrol engine, and this unit may find its place in the redesigned Thar, but there's no confirmation on this yet.

[Source: Autocar India]