One airbag deleted from Mahindra XUV300: Safety rating won’t change

Mahindra is preparing to quietly remove the knee airbag from the XUV300 compact SUV. This means that the airbag count will decrease from 7 to 6. The compact SUV will still continue to offer front, side and curtain airbags. The safety rating of the XUV300 will also not change. So, it will stay a 5-star rating in the Global NCAP crash test. The reason behind this is that the variant that Global NCAP tested was equipped with two airbags.

Not the first time Mahindra has silently removed features

Mahindra has already removed quite a few features from the XUV300. They have removed door ajar lamps earlier this month. Before this Mahindra also has removed heated outside rearview mirrors, centre seatbelt on the rear seat and boot lamp too.

Also read: Mahindra”s Executive Director buys a customized XUV300 compact SUV

Prices and rivals

As of now, there are no changes to the prices of the XUV300. So, it continues to start at Rs. 7.95 lakhs ex-showroom and go all the way up to Rs. 13.33 lakhs ex-showroom. Mahindra offers the XUV300 in four variants, namely W4, W6, W8, and W8(O). It competes against the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Tata Nexon, Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet, Renault Kiger, Nissan Magnite, Toyota Urban Cruiser, Ford Ecosport and the upcoming Citroen C3.

Mahindra to introduce a new engine

As per an official leaked RTO document, Mahindra is working on introducing a more powerful petrol engine to the XUV300. It is called the mStallion and we first saw it at Auto Expo 2020. At the Expo, there was a new variant called Sportz, it came with decals and red brake calipers. The new engine is also a 1.2-litre turbocharged unit but now gets a direct-injection technology. It puts out 130 PS of max power and 230 Nm of peak torque.

This makes the XUV300 the most powerful petrol compact SUV in the segment. The document said that the new engine would be offered on all four variants. As of now, it is not known whether Mahindra will continue to offer the current 1.2-litre turbocharged unit or not. Having said that, it makes more sense that the existing engine continues to be on sale as the new engine would increase the price of the XUV300 and the compact SUV is already priced higher than the competitors.

Current engines and gearbox

As of now, Mahindra offers the XUV300 with a 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol engine and a 1.5-litre diesel engine. The turbo petrol puts out 110 PS of max power and 200 Nm of peak torque. The diesel engine produces 117 PS of max power and 300 Nm of peak torque. Both the engines are mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox or a 6-speed AMT gearbox. With these engines also the XUV300 has segment-leading torque figures.

Segment first features

While Mahindra has removed some segment-first features like heated rearview mirrors and centre seatbelt. The XUV300 continues to come with all four disc brakes, 17-inch alloy wheels, front parking sensors, tyre position display, dual-zone climate control and steering modes.

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