2020 Mahindra Thar imagined: It’s much larger than before

The Mahindra Thar is among the few lifestyle off road vehicles available in India. It is very popular among enthusiasts because of its looks and off road prowess. Mahindra will launch the new generation Thar and it has been spied testing a couple times too.

Going by the spy images, the new Thar will be much larger than the current model. Though there have been no sightings of a non camouflaged test mule till now, various renders have surfaced which give a fair bit if idea how it will look like. Down below is another render by IAB, which again gives a hint of how the final production version SUV would look like.

going by this render, the new Thar will have a wider front grille section with the signature seven slats set having more gap between them. The current generation Thar is inspired by the MM540 and has almost the same design as the older car. However, the new Thar will be based on an all new Gen-3 platform that underpins vehicles like the Mahindra Scorpio and the Mahindra TUV 300 in the Indian market. Because of this, the dimensions of the Thar will grow and it will be much wider than the outgoing model. The bumper on the above render is also a new unit which gels itself with the front body and is quite good looking.

Talking of the new platform, it will help the new generation Thar to have better stability on the highways and will also make it much more comfortable compared to the current version of the vehicle. However, the Gen-3 platform does not offer as much articulation as the current version of the Thar, which will affect the vehicle’s off-roading capabilities.

This will probably be ironed out by the company using some other engineering gimmicks as Thar is known for its off road prowess and the company can’t let that go down with the new model. The test mules that have been spotted till now also suggest a new coil suspension setup, replacing the current leaf setup.

The new Mahindra Thar will also get a heart transplant that will offer much more power. The company is working on an all-new 2.0-litre, four-cylinder diesel engine that will power many upcoming vehicles by the company in the coming time. The all-new 2.0-litre engine is expected to produce around 140 Bhp of power and around 300 Nm of peak torque. This new 2.0 litre mill will also be offed on the upcoming all-new Scorpio and the all-new XUV500 in the Indian market.

By the time Mahindra launches the new Thar in India, which will happen probably in first quarter of 2020, the new BNVSAP will have already been implemented and the BS-VI emission norms will be about to get enforced. Therefore, the new Thar will have to comply with both of these new rules. This means the new Thar will come with a host of safety equipment including driver airbag, rear parking sensors, ABS and speed alert system. Mahindra could also offer an infotainment system on the Thar among other creature comforts.