Spaceship Enterprise
With a list of features and equipment that luxury cars boast of as well as brand new engines and a revamped chassis, Mahindra’s replacement for the XUV500 is very promising. Whether it delivers what it promises is yet to be seen but we got a glimpse of its capabilities over two days in Chennai and here is our first drive report
When the XUV500 was launched about a decade back, it was a game changer of sorts – both for Mahindra as well as for the market as it was super aggressively priced and had features and equipment well over what was expected of a vehicle of its class and pricing. It was also the company’s first monocoque SUV as well as having a transverse engine-front wheel drive layout. However, over the past few years it has been showing its age and we had all been expecting a next generation XUV500 and that was what Mahindra was also working on. But the next generation 500 turned out to be so far ahead of the game that Mahindra decided to up the ante and name it the XUV700, leaving space for a new car between the 300 and the 700.
The 700 continues to be a 7-seater as well and will come in two distinct lines, the MX and the AdrenoX series. While the MX will be a plain vanilla offering, filling up the space currently vacated by the 500, with an old diesel engine and bereft of any of the class leading features but still with small screens for both infotainment and instrument panel, it is the AdrenoX series that we drove and that we will be talking about here.
The car has remnants of the 500 design language but is a much more mature design if one overlooks the front and the rear, which are both designed with the intent of making a strong statement, one that may not be pleasing to all – but will appeal to a big enough audience. The car has a wide stance and inspires a lot more confidence than most of the Mahindra designs of yore and some of the highlights include flush door handles that are electrically deployed in some of the top variants.
Powering the AdrenoX series are two brand new all aluminium engines, a 2.2litre diesel and a 2-litre petrol, both turbocharged with direct injection. While the diesel is quite smooth to drive, and comes with different ECU maps to switch between three drive mode – Zip, Zap and Zoom, it is the petrol engine car that was more surprising and coming from Mahindra, it is a big step forward. Both the engines are available with manual and automatic gearboxes and there will be an option of having all wheel drive as well. The chassis itself has been made with liberal use of high tensile steel to enhance torsional rigidity and reduce weight as well as ensure safety and adequate impact absorption. Added to that is a multiple link rear suspension with frequency selective dampers and a stabilizer bar and Mahindra has the makings of a very dynamically capable SUV.
Mahindra has also loaded the car, although some of the top-end features and systems may only be available with option packs, with a huge number of systems and features including some advanced driver assist systems that run through signals received through both camera and radar – stuff that is till now found only in cars of luxury brands. These systems include adaptive cruise control with start from stop technology, emergency braking with front collision warning, lane assist, traffic sign recognition as well as high beam assist. The adaptive cruise control worked well on the nearly two-hour drive from Mahindra Research Valley to the Mahindra SUV Proving Tracks, and at the proving grounds we were able to test the other features like emer
THE CAR HAS A WIDE STANCE AND INSPIRES A LOT MORE CONFIDENCE THAN MOST OF THE MAHINDRA DESIGNS OF YORE
gency braking, lane assist and traffic sign recognition.
Then there is Adrenox itself – the heart of the connected car with Alexa built in. While many manufacturers are now providing connected car technology, having Alexa in the car means that you can connect to your preexisting Alexa network and also have familiar commands and skills, though not everything that you can do with an Alexa at home you can so with the Mahindra skill in