In what could be seen as a bid to counter the growing uncertainties surrounding the future of diesel vehicles in India, Mahindra & Mahindra today launched a new variant of the Scorpio equipped with its mild hybrid system called ‘Intelli-Hybrid’.

The new Scorpio Intelli-Hybrid is priced at Rs 12.84 lakh (ex-showroom Navi Mumbai, BS4) for the top-end S10-2WD model.

According to the utility vehicle manufacturer the Intelli-Hybrid technology reduces fuel consumption by up to 7% by assisting the engine with electric power during acceleration, automatically switching the engine off while the vehicle is stationary (start-stop) and re-using brake energy, which would otherwise be wasted, to charge the battery.

Initially, the ‘Intelli-Hybrid’ has been made available on the following variants of Scorpio with the 2.2 Litre mHAWK engine: S4, S4+, S4+ 4wd, S6+, S8, S10-2WD (manual transmission) and S10-4WD (manual transmission). However, the automatic variants miss out of the mild hybrid system for now.

The Scorpio has become the third vehicle in India to be equipped with mild hybrid technology. Maruti Suzuki introduced its own mild hybrid SHVS system on the Ciaz sedan in September last year, followed by launching an SHVS variant of the Ertiga in April this year.

Both the Ciaz and the Ertiga have benefitted immensely in terms of sales post the introduction of the mild hybrid variants. Due to being exempt from the odd-even scheme in Delhi and the ongoing diesel ban, the off-take for the mild hybrids have increased in the Delhi-NCR region.

Additionally, the mild hybrids also fall under the purview of the FAME scheme and the government offers incentives of up to Rs 13,000 on mild hybrids in India. The Scorpio Intelli Hybrid also benefits from this and the pricing reflects it as well. The new variant could give a fresh boost to the sales of the SUV which have been on downward trend for the last few months.

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