Ahmedabad based aftermarket CNG workshop has become one of the first in the country to fit CNG kit in Mahindra XUV700
Rising fuel prices are a concern for most car owners. Most customers in the sub 10 lakh segment have been moving towards CNG as their preferred fuel option. In fact, most mass market OEMs too have been introducing company fitted CNG options for their products. Manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata have aggressive plans to launch CNG iterations for the majority of their portfolio in 2022.
Till now, CNG has usually not been the preferred fuel option for most full sized sedans and SUVs. Things might change in the coming future though. Interestingly, an XUV700 owner has installed a CNG kit on his new vehicle and has claimed that he has seen a significant reduction in per km running cost.
Mahindra XUV700 CNG Ahmedabad
Until the introduction of BS 6 emission norms, most large sized SUVs were offered only with diesel motors. Hence, there was no possibility of introduction of CNG on these SUVs. However, with the BS 6 emission norms coming in, most OEMs have started to offer petrol engines as an option for most of their SUVs.
This opened up the possibility of introduction of CNG kits in these SUVs too. A new video posted by YT channel Car Show by Arsh Jolly showcases a Mahindra XUV700 which now runs on CNG. As per the owner’s claim, it is the first CNG fitted XUV700 of the country.
The CNG kit comprises of 2 CNG cylinders, each with a capacity of 12 kg each. The total CNG carrying capacity of the car thus goes up to 24 kgs. As per expectations, the CNG kit helps the owner to significantly lower down the fuel cost for the SUV.
A standard XUV700 with its turbo petrol motor usually offers a fuel efficiency of around 8-10 km/l in typical Indian bumper to bumper traffic situations. With the current fuel prices, it almost works out to be around INR 10/km.
Mahindra XUV700 CNG Details
On the other hand, with the CNG kit, the owner has been able to extract a fuel efficiency of around 25 km per kg of CNG. With standard CNG prices around INR 60-65 per Kg, the overall per km cost for the vehicle has come down to around INR 2.5 per km. Clearly, it is a significant decrease of around INR 7/km.
The unit which underwent the change happens to be an AX5 5-seater variant which draws its power from a 4 cylinder 2 litre turbocharged petrol motor. The engine is paired to a 6-speed manual gearbox and dishes out 200 PS and a peak torque of 380 Nm. As per the owner, as the turbo petrol motor of the XUV runs on a high compression ratio, it leads to lower losses in power due to conversion to CNG. The owner claims that the power drop while running on CNG is just around 2-2.5%.
The CNG kit was installed by a team from Gujarat and they offer a 2 year warranty on their CNG kit. Total cost of installation of the CNG kit happens to be INR 1.6 lakhs. However, due to the installation of a CNG kit, it is certain that Mahindra’s original warranty on the vehicle would end up being null and void.
