Thar has been a huge success for the homegrown manufacturer. The demand for the Thar was exceeding its supply since the launch of the SUV which can be considered as a good thing. However, things got a bit out of hand from Mahindra. The waiting period for the Thar had already increased by more than 10 months. However, now in some cities, the waiting period has increased to up to a year.

Mahindra has dispatched a total of 12,744 units of Thar till now but the bookings of Thar have already exceeded the 50,000 mark. Mahindra has ramped up the production but there are a lot of factors due to which the waiting period has increased so much.

The government declared a lockdown in Maharashtra which will affect the manufacturing capacity of Mahindra’s production plant that is located in Nashik. In 2020, the manufacturing plant was producing 2,000 units a month. Now, the production capacity of the plant should be 3,000 units per month.

Then there is the shortage of semiconductor that the world is currently facing. The semiconductors are used to manufacture most of the electrical components of the vehicle. ECUs, Airbag sensors, infotainment system, instrument cluster, safety equipment and much more requires semiconductors. Automotive manufacturers are not the only one who uses semiconductors. Consumer Goods, gaming consoles, mobile phones, chipsets and other electronic devices also use semiconductors. Due to this, Mahindra started shipping the Thars without infotainment systems. The infotainment systems were installed later by the dealerships then.

The reason behind such a high demand

Earlier, Thar was bought as a weekend vehicle because the buyer wanted to have a SUV that could go off-road. Thar was not really a practical vehicle and there were some issues with it. The ride quality was not good, the engine was noisy and the cabin space was very less. However, all these did not matter if a person was buying the vehicle for only himself.

So, Mahindra decided to work on it and make the Thar a better daily driver without hampering its off-road abilities. They reworked the ladder frame chassis and the suspension setup of the Thar. So, now not only the Thar has a better ride quality but it also handles better than the previous generation. The dimensions of the Thar were also increased by quite some margin which opened up more cabin space for proper front-facing rear seats. That too with proper legroom. So, now four people can travel in the Thar comfortably.

Mahindra launched the new Thar with petrol and a diesel engine. So, people who wanted a petrol SUV can also now get a Thar. Mahindra ensured that there is enough power in the engines. So, the 2.0-litre mStallion petrol engine puts out 150 PS of max power and 320 Nm of peak torque. Then there is the 2.2-litre mHawk diesel engine that produces 130 PS of max power and 320 Nm of peak torque. Both engines are offered with a 6-speed manual gearbox as standard. However, you can get a 6-speed torque converter automatic gearbox with both engines. This is a good thing as more and more people are now preferring the convenience that automatic transmissions offer. While doing all this, Mahindra ensured that they do not change the iconic design language of the Thar too much and they have been successful in that. Because of all these improvements, the Thar can be your only vehicle in the garage. The Thar currently starts at Rs. 12.10 lakhs ex-showroom.