New micro-hybrid Mahindra Xylo to hit the Indian roads by 2010 end

India's largest utility vehicle (UV) maker Mahindra & Mahindra said on Thursday that the company is planning to launch a micro-hybrid version of its popular multi utility vehicle (MUV) Mahindra Xylo in the Indian market, by the end of this year. With this, the company is also in the process to develop two new India bound electric cars on the same platform as Reva, by the end of year 2011.

The new micro-hybrid technology automatically turns off the engine as soon as the vehicle reaches a stand still position and restarts it on pressing the accelerator, which removes the need of manually restarting the engine. The company already uses this technology in its popular vehicles like Scorpio and Bolero MaxiTruck.

According to Mr Pawan Goenka, M&M president (automotive and farm equipment), the company plans to launch he Xylo micro-hybrid before the end of the year. He added that there are already about 50,000 micro-hybrid vehicles from the M&M stable plying on the roads now.

When inquired about the future plans for its newly acquired electric car maker Reva, Mr Goenka indicated that company is mulling over to commercially launch Reva NXR and Reva NXG, by the end of year 2011. A lot of work is going on at the moment and the launch of the new Reva NXR and NXG should be by Q4 of 2011, he said.

It is to be mentioned here that Mahindra group had acquired 5.2 percent stake in Reva Electric Car Co in May 2010. The company was then renamed as Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicle Co and Mr Goenka was appointed as the chairman of the firm.

The company sold 27,562 units of its vehicles in the Indian market during this month  as against the 22,999 units it sold in the same period last year. M&M continued its strong performance in the domestic market during the period and registered a 16.50 percent increase in its total domestic sales over the sales of the same period last year.

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