M & M To Get Avl Diesel Engine Technology

Mahindra and Mahindra will soon get the benefits of diesel engine technology from AVL of Austria. A technical delegation from the Mumbai-based company was recently in Graz, Austria, to complete the formalities and the final technical appraisal.

Initially the Austrian firm will be fine-tuning the Peugeot range of diesel engines that M&M still uses, to make them more environment-friendly. Peugeot has no interest left in M&M since they sold of their stake in 1996. The improved XDP line of Peugeot engines, will make a debut in the up-coming sports utility concept of M&M, the Scorpion. The improved NVH( noise, vibration, harshness) characteristics of this refined engine will enable M&M to use it for the Armada Grand, the deluxe version of the Jeep based GPV.

 

The company proposes to launch the small utility vehicle, the Scorpio, by 2000. The vehicle, billed as the poor mans Pajero, is expected to cost around Rs 4.5 lakh. M&M had been scouting for an appropriate engine for the model for more than a year now.

M&Ms long term plan is to hedge the models of its prime competitor, Telco. While the Commander models are far cheaper than the Telco models the Armada and the Armada Grand will be placed to compete against Telcos Sumo and Sumo Deluxe and will be competitively priced than the Telco models. Likewise the Scorpio is expected to be pitted to challenge the Safari, Telcos Sports utility vehicle, top industry sources indicated.

M&M is investing close to Rs 100 crore to set up a state-of-the-art R&D centre near Thane, to develop new models and improve upon existing ones.

Meanwhile, AVL authorities when contacted in Austria confirmed that talks were on with Mahindra and Mahindra for developing an all new diesel engine that is meant to power both general purpose vehicles and small passenger cars.

M&M has been trying to develop a low cost small car platform all on its own and the new diesel engine is set to power this project which has not reached the prototype stage yet.

Premier Automobiles and Telco are the other two Indian automotive companies that has worked with AVL for diesel engines. Recently, Eicher Motors had approached AVL to develop an all-new single cylinder 350cc engine for the Royal Enfield Bullet. Royal Enfield Motors is a fully owned subsidiary of Eicher Motors. AVL officials said the work on the Enfield engine is complete and the new model, the Enfield Bullet A 350 will soon be manufactured from the up-coming Jaipur plant of Royal Enfield.