M&M to ship 300 Scorpios to Malaysia

Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) has received an order for around 300 petrol Scorpios from Malaysia, which will be supplied over February and March.

Besides this, the sports utility vehicle (SUV) is also going places in Western Europe with its newly fitted common rail diesel engine (CRDE). The Scorpio will hit the roads of Italy and France once it clears the Euro-III compliance tests.

The SUV made its debut in South Africa earlier this year. "When we launched the Scorpio we decided that exports should account for 30 per cent of our total sales in four-five years. Currently, exports account for around 10 per cent of Scorpio sales. We are working towards meeting our target," said Pawan Goenka, COO.

M&M today launched the Bharat Stage III-compliant version of the Scorpio with a CRDE. The SUV will be initially available in metros after which there will be a national rollout.

M&M will stop selling BS II-compliant Scorpios in 11 metros when they move to the BS III stage on April 1, but will sell the models in other parts of the country which will be graduating from BS-I norms on April 1.

M&M's CRDE vehicles will cost nearly Rs 33,000 more than the BS II vehicles on a variant basis. The SUV will be priced between Rs 6.83 lakh and Rs 7.93 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). M&M's CRD engine was developed in cooperation with Mico Bosch.

The launch of the spruced-up Scorpio marks the beginning of another round of stiff competition in the SUV segment.

The launch of the Toyota Innova later this week will heat up action in the segment further. This Qualis replacement is expected to be priced between Rs 6.4 lakh and Rs 7.8 lakh.

Industry sources also indicate that the 2.5-litre common rail diesel engine will find its way into the Tata Safari soon, thus intensifying competition in the SUV segment.