Jaguar Land Rover today introduced the option of a petrol engine in the Discovery Sport SUV in India. Available only in the top-spec HSE variant, the Discovery Sport petrol is priced at Rs 56.5 lakh
(ex-showroom, Delhi).
With the introduction of a petrol motor, the carmaker aims to expand the market base of the SUV, which until now, was only available in a 2,179cc diesel variant and was not capable of being sold in the Delhi-NCR region due to the ongoing ban sale of vehicles above 2,000cc.
JLR has been severely hit by the Supreme Court’s ban since the ruling affected its flagship Range Rover, the Discovery Sport, the Evoque, XF and XJ among other vehicles.
Earlier this year, we reported that Land Rover was working towards introducing petrol engines in its line-up in India. A larger 340hp, 3.0-litre supercharged V6 could be introduced in the Range Rover Sport and other vehicles in the near term.
The Discovery Sport has a 240hp 2.0-litre turbo-petrol unit and comes mated to a nine-speed automatic gearbox.It also gets the Land Rover’s Terrain Response 4WD system, a panoramic sunroof and a rear-view camera. Land Rover also offers a seven-seat configuration as an option on the Discovery Sport line-up in India.
The SUV would rival the recently launched Mercedes GLC 300 which is priced at Rs 50.9 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune) and also comes with a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine good for 245hp.
Dipan Sur
Viraaj Bhatnagar
