Goodbye, Mahindra Nuvosport & Verito Vibe

Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra is all set to stop selling two models in its current lineup by 2020. According to a Moneycontrol report, Mahindra will stop selling these vehicles due to the upcoming new safety regulations and BS-VI emission norms that go into effect in April 2020.

According to the publication, these models have not achieved sustainable levels of sales over the years and are therefore are not set to be upgraded to meet upcoming safety and emission norms issued by the government. These new rules the include upcoming Bharat NCAP safety norms that will go into effect on October 1, 2019, that will make airbags and ABS with EBD mandatory. A few months later on April 1, 2020, new BS-VI emission norms will go into effect as per the directive of the Supreme Court.

Speaking at a Press Meet, Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra said,

“All the products that need to be compliant now are compliant and all the products that needs to become compliant next year will become so next year. There is only one very low volume product that will be phased out because of safety norms. There will be one or two models that will be phased out because of the BS-VI norms.”

While both Mahindra and its managing director remained mum about which models will be axed from the carmaker’s lineup, Moneycontrol states that as per sales reports from SIAM, the two most likely to be removed seem to be the Verito Vibe and the NuvoSport. As per the publication, Mahindra has stopped producing both vehicles.

The Verito Vibe is one of the derivatives of the Logan, which developed by Mahindra during its failed partnership with French carmaker Renault way back in 2013. The Verito Vibe is a hatchback developed from the Logan. The other vehicle set to be axed is the NuvoSport, which was basically a facelifted version of the Quanto sub-4-metre SUV. Based on a the same platform that underpins the Xylo, production of the NuvoSport was stopped a few months ago by Mahindra due to low sales numbers.

Mahindra is not the only carmaker set to stop production of vehicles due to the upcoming BS-VI emission norms and new safety rules. Maruti is set to remove the Alto 800 and Omni from its lineup, while Tata Motors is said to be ditching Nano and the Bolt. There have also been consisting rumours surrounding Hyundai’s Eon as another candidate likely to be axed and Honda is also said to be set to give the Brio hatchback the pink slip as well.