Mahindra Thar Bench Seats to be Discontinued in India

News Highlights

• The bench seat layout will be discontinued from the new-gen Mahindra Thar
• Mahindra Thar received a 4-star rating from Global NCAP
• The top-end trim of Thar was chosen for the crash test

The new-gen Mahindra Thar has been performing quite well in the Indian market since its launch. The company has managed to dispatch over 2500 units of the SUV within the first month of its arrival. Recently, 2020 Mahindra Thar received a 4-star rating from the Global NCAP. Usually, the organization picks up the base variant of any model to perform the test but in the case of new-gen Thar, the top-end trim with alloy wheels was selected as it could place a higher load on the firewall in comparison to the steel wheels.

The variant of Thar that was being tested came equipped with side-facing seats. As per Alejandro Furas, secretary-general of Global NCAP, Mahindra is planning to remove the side-facing seat from the new-gen Thar. By the time the crash test results will be declared, the side-facing seats will be discontinued from the SUV. Furthermore, if Mahindra plans to reintroduce the side-facing seats again in the future, Global NCAP will have to cancel its 4-star rating and retest the model with the bench seat layout.

Mahindra & Mahindra will be removing the side-facing seat configuration permanently from the Thar model lineup. Initially, when the SUV was launched, it was offered in two variants - AX and LX. Last month, the company discontinued the base AX variant in the market. Currently, we just have the top-end LX variant on sale. The price for the same starts at Rs 12.49 lakhs (ex-showroom). The fully-loaded LX trim comes equipped with features like a 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system integrated with Apple Car Play & Android Auto, 8-way adjustable front seats with height and lumbar adjust, cruise control, power-adjustable ORVMS, roof-mounted speakers among others. 

Source: Autocar India