The Mitsubishi Pajero with its great off-road capabilities has been not selling well. Coupled with its high emission rates, the Pajero did not go down well with the Indian emission norms either. Most consumers who live in major Indian urban settings were not accessible to the Pajero as Mitsubishi-Hindustan Motors were not quick enough in upgrading the Pajero to meet BS4 norms.
Mitsubishi has now chosen to address the woes of the Pajero by launching a new BS4 compliant version which will meet India’s severe emission laws. This model is already available across the manufacturer’s showrooms in major cities. The dampener though is the Pajero’s engine, which does not provide as good torque and power as is expected.
The strict emission norms seem to have choked the old turbodiesel engine, which has led to decreasing torque and power figures. With an engine delivering 118 bhp, the older Pajero was already underpowered. Now with a further reduced power, the Pajero could be quite difficult to ride around in our cities, a factor which does not make for a good selling point.
The new BS4 compliant Pajero motor produces a measly 108 bhp and a torque of 260Nm. This is a total of 10 bhp and 32 Nm less power than the old Pajero motor. As for the price, it is expected to stay the same, though it might go up because of the added work done on it to make it BS4 compliant.
While making the Pajero BS4 compliant was a great idea, the reduction and in power sounds like the Pajero’s death knell, with only hard core fans of the SUV queuing up to buy an over priced, under powered, though highly efficient off road SUV.
