Mahindra Thar 5-door production to start by June this year

Mahindra’s next big launch for the Indian market, the Thar 5-door, will go on sale in the second half of this year. The carmaker has been testing the Thar 5-door at various locations across the country for over a year, with sources telling us that it will go into series production around June this year.

The Thar 5-door will be built on the same production line as the 3-door iteration; the latter already has a huge order backlog, but sources tell us that the 5-door won't affect production. The 5-door could get the Thar Armada moniker upon launch, and production target is about 4,000 units a month.

Mahindra Thar 5-door expected features

The Thar 5-door will get significantly more kit than the 3-door, and latest spy shots from South India show that the SUV is close to production. The Thar 5-door will have a unique front bumper and grille, the rear bumpers have been mildly tweaked, and the tail-lamps are slightly reprofiled. The alloy wheel design seems to be new too and the Thar 5-door could get different alloy wheel designs depending on the variant.

On the inside, the Thar 5-door will have the same 10.25-inch touchscreen that made its debut on the updated XUV400; it could also get OTA updates. In order to accommodate the bigger infotainment screen, the dashboard design has been mildly altered. This unit features improved interface and graphics, and will also feature on the XUV300 facelift that will go on sale before the Thar 5-door. The switchgear, however, seems to be the same as the current Thar, while the steering wheel seems to be the same as the one on the XUV700. The Thar 5-door, as seen in these spy shots, will get arm rests for the front and rear passengers with dedicated grab handles for the second row. Additionally, the Thar 5-door (Thar Armada) will also get a sunroof on the higher variants.

Mahindra Thar 5-door powertrain options

The Thar 5-door is expected to continue with the same 2.2-litre diesel and 2.0-litre petrol engines as the 3-door version, which will be mated to the same 6-speed manual and auto gearboxes. The off-road hardware will also be carried forward, but there will be suspension tweaks to the SUV, depending on the powertrain.