Mahindra Thar gets expensive by over ₹1 lakh within a month

Mahindra and Mahindra has once again hiked the price of its flagship SUV Thar. The carmaker has increased the price of the SUV by up to ₹1.05 lakh. The decision to hike the price of Thar SUV comes after the new BS-6 Phase 2 emission norms kicked in from April 1 across India. However, Mahindra has not officially shared any reason behind the price hike. The price of the off-road SUV now starts from ₹10.55 lakh (ex-showroom) for the base AX (O) diesel manual RWD variant and goes up to ₹16.77 lakh (ex-showroom) for the top-spec LX hard top diesel automatic version.

The biggest hike among all the variants of Thar has been implemented on the LX hard top diesel manual RWD, which has seen an increase of ₹1.05 lakh. Among the other variants, the AX(O) hard top diesel manual RWD variant is now expensive by ₹55,000, while all other variants have seen a uniform price hike of ₹28,200. The only variant that was spared from a price hike is the LX petrol automatic RWD version. The hike in price also includes the withdrawal of the introductory prices on Thar RWD versions launched in January this year.

Mahindra and Mahindra recently launched a more affordable version of the Thar SUV which comes with a 1.5-litre diesel engine. All other variants of the SUV come powered by either a 2-litre turbo petrol unit or the 2.2-litre mHawk diesel engine. The SUV is offered with manual and automatic transmissions. The turbo petrol unit can generate 150 PS of power and 320 Nm of peak torque. The more powerful diesel unit churns out 130 PS of power and 300 Nm of peak torque. The latest RWD version with the 1.5-litre diesel unit offers 118 PS and 300 Nm.

According to reports, Mahindra is also planning to launch a more affordable 4X4 version of the SUV soon. The carmaker is also gearing up to launch a five-door version of the SUV in India. The Thar 5-door SUV is aimed to take on Maruti Suzuki Jimny, which is expected to launch some time next month.