Mahindra Scorpio facelift to get upmarket interiors

The Mahindra Scorpio SUV is going to receive a substantial styling update later this year, and the updated exterior has been spied while testing earlier, revealing tweaks to the headlights and front and rear bumpers. However, now we’ve got our hands on a new set of spy images sent by Vishnu Kallil which, for the first time, reveal the updated Scorpio’s all-new dashboard and other interior updates.

A huge effort appears to have been made in moving away from the basic, utilitarian interior of the old Scorpio to a more upmarket one. Although the rather upright dashboard and tall gearlever betray its decade-old origins, the detailing is all-new and the overall colour scheme is now a restrained beige and black, with some light brown trim as well. Gone are the oval AC vents, replaced by smart-looking, chrome-lined rectangular units on a piano-black base. A prominent “Scorpio” badge now sits below the left AC vent, and there are twin gloveboxes in place of the tough grab handle previously placed ahead of the front passenger.

A big screen takes centre-stage on the centre console and it’s expected to handle all infotainment duties, possibly including satellite navigation and the display for a rear-view camera. The AC knobs are also all-new and look quite similar to the ones from the XUV500; the top variants may also get automatic climate control.

The new centre console looks less cluttered and much better integrated with the dashboard.  A big change is that the power-window switches have now moved to the doors from the dash (which has also resulted in the grab handle being removed from the driver’s side door). The gear knob is also new and looks more premium than the square-shaped one from before.  Mahindra has also added a 12v socket just beside the gear knob in the new Scorpio.

The updated Scorpio’s steering wheel has been borrowed from the XUV500, and comes with a number of controls on it. There’s an all-new instrument panel as well, with twin dials in a futuristic-looking housing, and a new multi-info display sitting prominently between them. The rest of the switchgear looks carried over from the current model.

The Scorpio facelift is likely to use the same engines, which means the 120bhp, 2.2-litre mHawk and the 75bhp 2.5-litre m2DiCR, both mated to a five-speed manual gearboxes.

The Scorpio facelift is expected to be launched later this year and you can expect it to come with a slight bump in price.

Akbar Merchant