Mahindra XUV300 caught in the flesh, during official TVC shoot

The Mahindra XUV300 has garnered a lot of attention lately and though Mahindra gave us a few official pictures, all them were studio shots. And this is why the picture you see below is very important – this is the first time we are seeing Mahindra’s sub 4 meter compact SUV in a natural environment.

India’s rally ace, Gaurav Gill posted this image on his Instagram account while on an official shoot for the new SUV. The location seems to be Galaxy Club in Bangalore. Gill, we are sure, is a part of an official commercial or a video that Mahindra will soon put up on their social media handles.

Do note that the XUV300 is slated for commercial launch in Feb 2019 and will be positioned as a premium compact SUV. The color we see here could very well be the official marketing shade.   And it does look great with the segment first dual DRL front set-up and those stunning machined polished 17-inch alloy wheels that come with Apollo tyres.

We zoomed into the picture and saw a PP-48 sticker which could mean that is a pre-production unit which hints on the fact that production versions are yet to roll out from the assembly plant.

The XUV300 will challenge the segment leader Maruti Vitara Breeza and will put up a tough fight in front of other options like the Tata Nexon and the Ford EcoSport. For the uninitiated, this SUV is based on the Sangyong Tivoli but has been revised heavily for the Indian market. It will get two engines at launch, a 1.2-litre turbocharged unit and a 1.5-litre turbocharged diesel motor. Both the units will initially come with a manual gearbox only while at the later stage, an automatic will be offered.

The XUV300 will have segment unique and first features like a dual zone climate control, disc brakes at all four ends, high quality leather interiors, sunroof, upto 7 airbags et al. This will be Mahindra’s third all-new product for the 2018-2019 financial year with the Marazzo and Alturas G4 being the other two. We believe the XUV300 will be priced from Rs 7.5 lakh for the petrol line-up and Rs 8.5 lakh for the diesel line-up, prices being ex-showroom.

The XUV300 is Mahindra’s latest attempt at the small car (under 4 meter) segment. Its past efforts with the Quanto, and later KUV100 and Nuvosport were not exactly successful. So how is the KUV100 going to fare? Our guess is that much better than all its earlier attempts. The reason is that Mahindra has made the vehicle actually look premium with baby XUV500 looks, with a more powerful engine, and a shape that is quite familiar to those who are used to the Maruti Brezza. That was an accident – the XUV300 is based on the Ssangyong Tivoli which had the same overall shape all along. Featureswise, Mahindra does not hold back and the XUV300 is no exception either.

Add it all up, and we expect a good performance by the XUV300 once it hits the market early next year. We can’t wait.