Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has started working on the all new Scorpio, codenamed W105. Nearly a decade old, the present Scorpio is broadly credited as being a sport utility vehicle, which created latter-day M&M and though it continues to market well. As compared to the recently introduced XUV500, the all-new Scorpio will not be designed and developed around carlike monocoque. The company’s success and experience with Bolero has shown that body on frame sport utility vehicles perform well both in rural and urban markets. Consequently, it will be based on a heavily customized variant of present platform of Scorpio and is expected to feature lengthened wheelbase to help it tide over the present Scorpio’s one serious limitation – short of legroom in 2nd row. Motivation for the Scorpio will come from an M-Hawk engine, which is good for pulsating 140 horsepower.
The Mahindra all-new Scorpio will feature an all-new body and could also include lessons learned from ambitious lightweight Scorpio project dubbed T026. Work on the W105 is mainly being accomplished at the company’s new research plant situated in Chennai called MRV (Mahindra Research Valley). Mahindra is expecting an accelerated development programme with the all-new state-of-the-art facilities and labs present. In spite of the success of XUV500, it is likely to be the mainstay for the company in the 2nd half of this decade. The Scorpio is likely to hit showrooms in 2014 and the company is also working really hard to get the new pickup version.