SCORPIO HYBRID

An India maker which came into automotive business by assembling willy’s jeeps imported from United States is going to sell Indian made SUV’s in USA next year. Mahindra which wishes to be the Indian Land Rover will take on Toyota, Ford and Honda in United States in 2009. Mahindra is making a superior scorpio to suit the emission and safety norms. But Mahindra makes something more than scorpio to lure US customers. What is called Scorpio Hybrid which is an important product for Mahindra’s US game plan. This is India’s first Hybrid SUV and we got some exclusive information on the vehicle.

The new hybrid scoprio will look more like a regular scorpio, the powertrain is completely new. It uses diesel-electric parallel hybrid. Mahindra hybridized the scorpio with the help of FEV an internationally recognized powertrain and vehicle engineering. Mahindra scorpio hybrid operates in four modes.

1) Mahindra scorpio hybrid Motor assist mode: Both the combustion engine and electric motor simultaneously power the vehicle.

2) Mahindra scorpio hybrid Generator mode: Combustion engine powers the vehicle while charging the batteries during partial load conditions.

3) Mahindra scorpio hybrid Regenerative Braking mode: Part of brake energy wasted as heat is recuperated using the e-machine as a generator into battery

4) Mahindra scorpio hybrid Motor Idle Charging mode: if the battery state of charge is lower than the threshold, the combustion engine recharges the battery while idling.

A 2.2 Liter, I-4, second generation diesel common rail engine producing 113bhp of maximum power and 270 Nm of peak torque is under the hood of the hybrid scorpio. Assisting the m-Hawk engine is the electric motor which produces 40bhp. The combustion engine, the electric machine and the automatic transmission are coupled together through a mechanical torque converter. Mahindra and Mahindra earns the credit of making India’s first automatic transmission. The six speed automatic transmission is a fully electronic control system and simplifies the regular gear system to just four operations - parking,reverse,neutral and drive.