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-   -   Mahindra developing a full-scale Hybrid SUV (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/145206-mahindra-developing-full-scale-hybrid-suv.html)

Mahindra is said to be in the process of developing a hybrid system which can be coupled to a manual transmission and fitted to their SUVs. According to a report on ET Auto, the company might well display its hybrids at the Delhi Auto Expo in February 2014.
Mahindra claims that the new system will enhance fuel efficiency by 20% and is likely to be used in the XUV5OO and the Scorpio.

Link to News Article

It is a good news that an Indian company is spending good amount of resources on technology and innovation. As Toyota Prius has not been able to manage customers, I have my doubt that without subsidies Mahindra may not be in a position to price the car competitively. Balancing 20% fuel efficiency with rising cost can be tough. It is sad that an Indian company which has developed an electric car and is now in the process of developing a hybrid is not getting enough support on subsidies front from Indian regulators/government. It is high time that Government should give a serious thought to encourage companies who are investing in R&D, thus making India proud.

M&M wants to go against the flow by making a manual transmission hybrid?! I'm sure by the time they come to the pricing it will be significantly higher than a regular variant, and then it will not have AT! Hybrids have better FE in the stop and go of city traffic due to regenerative braking, an AT would be a nice feature. I think M&M should offer AT as an option if and when they start production.

Most fuel is lost between stop to go. If an electric motor can assist the Go at a traffic signal, that itself will save a lot of fuel. I believe thats where Mahindra is putting its money. If driven right, 20% target is achievable in the city.

There will not be any significant benefit of the hybrid system during a highway run on fuel economy, unless you drive slow enough for the electric motors to engage.

Mahindra makes me feel proud.

Great initiative by Mahindra. The Govt urgently needs to give sops to encourage more such efforts by carmakers - like they do for domestic solar power units.
An AT option will push up costs even more and I guess Mahindra knows the Indian customer.:)

I'm assuming this might be an extension of the micro-hybrid technology which needs clutch for turning the engine off and on currently and hence it wouldn't be easy to port it into AT. They might be tweaking the micro-hybrid technology to run from batteries instead of turning on the engine in current system. May be the engine would be started only after these batteries are depleted. Just a wild guess :)

By linking it with MT, I think Mahindra might also be able to introduce this into all variants of Scorpio and XUV which might help them get the large scale production and associated pricing benefits if needed. Restricting it to AT alone would mean a very small number which would cause an exorbitant price differential.

With the E2O experience, they might know better than to wait/hope for govt subsidy.