Exclusive! Mahindra TUV500 will have a 9-seater layout

The Mahindra TUV500 will be launched somewhere in September 2017 and will have a 9-seater layout as optional.

Here is another exclusive news from Motor World India. Our reader Yash Dole has spotted the Mahindra TUV500 testing. The car was completely camouflaged especially towards the rear where even the rear quarter glass was blacked out. This is the same long wheel base TUV300 the world has been talking about. The car is scheduled to be launched in September 2017 and is said to come with an optional 9-seater layout. This will be a 2+2 jump seat layout. The current TUV300 is already offered with 1+1 jump seats in the third row. It is said that the company might introduce it as an option to a regular bench seat third row. So the Mahindra TUV500 might be offered as a 7-seater as well as a 9-seater!

The engine option will be the one offered on the current Scorpio. It will be a 2.2-litre m-Hawk diesel engine with 120 HP on tap. This will either be mated to a 6-speed manual transmission and an AMT automatic. The current 1.5-litre diesel engine is available in 2 states of tune 80 HP and 100 HP, but still did not give the TUV300 the power you normally associate with a Mahindra SUV. So the closest option will be the Scorpio sourced m-Hawk diesel engine. That said, the Mahindra TUV500 might not be offered with 4-wheel drive system from the Scorpio.

On the outsides, the test mule of the Mahindra TUV500 looks pretty much identical to the TUV300, albeit a stretched one. On the insides though you can expect few more features taken from its elder brother, Scorpio. A new instrument cluster along with a revised central console are a few things expected from this upcoming Mahindra. Safety features are also expected to be standard across all variants.