Mahindra working on a petrol XUV500?

Diesel ban may be a reality if the Supreme Court (SC) does not reconsider Centre's plea. 

However, carmakers are not leaving it to chance. Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), India's leading diesel car and sports utility vehicle (SUV) maker is now making a conscious shift towards petrol. 

Pawan Goenka, Executive Director, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) Auto and Farm Sector told Zee Business that the company will launch a two-litre petrol version of its high-selling XUV500. Apart from this, the company will also launch a new 1.5 litre pertrol engine under the 'X100' platform.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has already placed a ban on sale and registration of diesel cars with an engine capacity of over 2000 cc in National Capital Region. 

A number of M&M's cars have diesel engines over 2000cc, this includes Bolero (2523cc), Getaway (2609cc), Ssangyong Rexton (2696cc), Scorpio (2523cc), Thar (2498cc) and XUV500 (2179cc).

While several automobile companies had kept their expansion plans on hold over there is clarity over SC's decision, Mahindra however has signalled that it has decided to take the petrol route. It could mean that the company replicate this petrol engine for other diesel cars.

Mahindra's utility vehicles (UV) continue to drive sales of the company. In June 2016 the sales of rose by 9%, while a month earlier the segment had reported growth of 10%.

The Supreme Court has issued a ban on diesel vehicles above 2,000cc in Delhi-NCR. This is mainly going to affect SUVs and other high-end sport cars with such an engine capacity.

While there were several petitions on the modification of the SC order on the diesel ban, the SC reserved its verdict on it just two days ago.