Home grown auto major, Mahindra had revealed earlier that a special edition of its popular SUV, XUV 500 will be released in the coming months. The special edition will be offered in the domestic market until the facelifted version is launched in India. Sources close to development have revealed that the special edition of XUV 500 dubbed, ‘Sportz’ will be based on the W8 trim of the SUV and will mostly sport cosmetic upgrades. Being a special edition, changes made to the car will be limited and it will appear precisely like the standard model. It is being expected that Mahindra could bestow extra graphics on the vehicle to vary it with the regular model. Other touch ups on the exterior front are also likely to be seen.
Inside the cabin, new upholstery could be seen to match up the additions made on the outer front. Mechanically, the Sportz edition will be identical with the rest of the variants in XUV 500 line-up powered with a 2.2 litre mHawk engine. The robust engine pumps out a top power and torque output of 140 Bhp and 330 Nm respectively. Like other variants of XUV 500, a six-speed manual gearbox will be mated to the motor.
Industry insiders opine that the vehicle is almost ready and could be rolled out soon in the domestic market. The recent slump has affected Mahindra’s domestic sales significantly; despite the excise duty cuts M&M could not combat low demand in market.
The facelifted version under development stage would be the first renewed version of the SUV. Prior to this, the company had added a new entry level variant dubbed W4 last year. SUV segment has grown immensely in the past couple of years, launch of new SUVs like Duster and EcoSport has heated up competition in the SUV segment.
