M&M's mFalcon to take on Ford's EcoBoost?

The Mahindra KUV100 launched today also marks homegrown OEM Mahindra & Mahindra's (M&M) entry into the petrol car market with its own engine. The KUV100 falls in the compact SUV segment in India, which saw its first successful model in the Ford EcoSport which was launched in June 2013. One of the talking points of the Ford EcoSport has been its three-cylinder, 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine which belts out 123bhp – that's power equivalent from a 1.6-litre engine. M&M plans to do something similar.

The petrol version of the new 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder engine branded as mFalcon develops 82bhp. The plan is to pump up the power output to 130bhp. That will be possible with direct injection technology, which is also found in Ford's EcoBoost engine. M&M's mFalcon engine has been developed keeping in mind a horizon of at least "10 years". GDI (gasoline direct injection) technology will be adopted later, not only to offer more powerful engines but also to lower tailpipe emissions. "It has to be ahead of the time, then it has to be design protected so that tomorrow you can take more power. For example, the fuel injection is in the port of this engine which is the MPFI. But it is also design protected and capable to put, design protected for turbo and also tomorrow when we get in to a different injection altogether," Rajan Wadhera – president and chief executive, truck and powertrain, and head – Mahindra Research Valley, M&M, told Autocar Professional earlier.    

The new mFalcon engine family, which has been developed at Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai, makes its debut with the KUV100, but it could also be seen in future SUVs and an MPV or two from M&M. If needed, it can also power small commercial vehicles (SCV) but that will be too expensive for the Indian market. It could do duty in SCVs for export markets, as most export markets have petrol-run SCVs.

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Wadhera stresses that the mFalcon engine, an example of the downsizing trend in India, packs quite a bit of technology to offer power while being very compact. The engine does not have any pipe, hose or tube. The variable thermostat and water pumps are integrated to save space as well as avoid any parasitic loss. Some of the key suppliers for the mFalcon engine are AVL (design), Continental (fuel system), Magneti Marelli Motherson (Plastic intake manifold, cam covers).   

M&M, the leader in the UV space, hasn't seen success in the growing compact SUV segment. Its first offering, the Quanto, failed to get the numbers. The TUV300 has been averaging sales of around 4,000 units a month. But the KUV100 has the big responsibility to contribute much bigger numbers to the sales charts as it falls in the biggest segment of the Indian car market, in terms of price.

Therefore, the development team is learnt to have put extra efforts in validating the engine and the vehicle. The mFalcon engines have undergone tests of 16,000 hours on the test bed, and 16 lakh kilometres on 37 vehicles before being cleared for launch.

Now, the rest of the KUV100 story will depend on two key factors. One is the market response to a compact vehicle which will compete with models from well-entrenched players like Maruti and Hyundai. The other is consumers’ reaction to a petrol-engined vehicle from Mahindra, which has been enjoying success so far in the diesel SUV market.

In the light of diesels facing headwind in India, and likely to face more in the future, the roles for the KUV100 and the mFalcon petrol engine become all the more crucial.

M&M readies under-2,000cc diesel engines 
Meanwhile, M&M could be working its way around it by tweaking its over-2-litre engines to duck the 2000cc mark. Chairman Anand Mahindra seemed to have hinted at it in his tweet on December 16, soon after the government announced the ban on diesel engines above 2,000cc. His tweet read as: “Even if we believe the decision on diesel vehicles isn’t optimal, we’ll honour it and develop vehicles that comply with their (government’s) stipulations.”  

It is also learnt that the company is working to put its 2.2-litre petrol engine -- which powers the XUV500 and Scorpio export models -- in these two SUVs for the domestic market.  

Also read: Mahindra targets sales of 80,000-90,000 KUV100s a year