Mahindra launches Marazzo, the new shark in the tank

The much awaited Mahindra Marazzo MPV has launched with introductory prices starting at Rs 9.99 lakh

The Mahindra Marazzo has been developed in North America, by the automaker's Detroit-based research wing and R&D team in Chennai. The Marazzo is the first of the company's three big launches this fiscal as it seeks to regain its stature in the market. The MPV will be a global product and will be sold in many countries, besides India.

The Marazzo will have the largest legroom found on a Mahindra passenger car, which means that it'll be quite spacious. It is available in seven and eight seat configurations and four trims - M2, M4, M6 and M8.

Built on a completely new platform, Marazzo comes with a new 1.5-litre diesel engine that develops 123 PS power at 3500 rpm and 300 NM of torque at 1600 rpm, mated to a six speed manual transmission. Mahindra said it is working on automatic variants as well as a petrol engine.

All variants will get driver and passenger airbags, ABS and ISOFIX child seats as standard. The top-end Marazzo (M8) will feature LED projector headlamps, 18-inch alloy wheels, cruise control, touchscreen infotainment unit with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and even leather seats. The M8 also gets a rear parking camera and parking sensors, while the M6 misses out on the camera.

The Marazzo, which means shark in Basque, a sub-language in Spanish, boasts a shark-inspired design. The shark inspired design can be seen in a host of elements on the Mahindra Marazzo.The grille resembles with shark's teeth, while the tail serves as an inspiration for the design of the taillight on the MPV.

At this price point, the Mahindra Marazzo will take on the Tata Hexa, Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, Renault Lodgy and to an extent the Toyota Innova Crysta.

The Marazzo is more expensive than its main rival, the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga (Rs 6.34-10.69 lakh). The Maruti has the advantage of a petrol engine option (with manual and automatic transmissions) as well (Rs 6.34-8.85 lakh), though diesel model prices (Rs 8.79-10.69 lakh) are still quite competitive.

The Mahindra Marazzo has been developed with an investment of $200 million in R&D. In contrast, the Mahindra Scorpio was developed with an investment of $120 million.

Once India's undisputed king of utility vehicles, Mahindra, has lost its mojo in recent times due to its ill-preparedness in the compact SUV segment and increasing competition in other segments. Its last big success was the XUV5OO in 2011. Since then it has launched at least two significant products in the sub 4 metre utility vehicle space -- the KUV1OO and TUV 3OO.

Both have failed to live up to the expectations. As a result, the company's market share between fiscal 2012 and 2018 has more than halved from 55.6% to 26.32%.