Mahindra Scorpio Built For The Indian Army Detailed On Video
The Indian armed forces have to operate across diverse terrains and climatic conditions. Strategic operational areas often have tricky terrains and landscapes. The army thus needs rugged, off-road-ready vehicles to facilitate inventory and personnel movement. The Indian defence fleet consists of SUVs like Maruti Gypsy, Mahindra Scorpio, Tata Safari Storme, and Jimny. Recently, we even saw a fleet of Toyota Fortuners wearing Matte Green paint getting inducted into the defence fleet. These are all familiar SUVs. The Civilians may have these in their respective garages. However, the army versions come with modifications and upgrades that aren’t offered on regular civilian versions. Now, a video of an Army-spec Scorpio has surfaced, showing just how different it is from the civilian version.
Mahindra launched the Scorpio Classic in August 2022. It came in two variants- S and S11. At the time of writing, the civilian version of this SUV is priced in the range of Rs 12. 97- 16.70 lakh, ex-showroom. Shivam Pathak recently shared two short-form videos on his Instagram handle, showing a military-spec Scorpio in detail. It is, in fact, based on the pre-facelift model (which used to exist before the Scorpio Classic made its market entry).
The first of these videos shows the exterior design of the vehicle. It is seen parked in the open. The host gives a complete walkaround of the vehicle. It wears the Matte military Green paint. You’ll notice the older grille, old Mahindra logo, bumper, and circular fog lamps at the front. Then, we see the side design- identical to that of the SUV that was previously on sale here. It gets strong, functional roof rails as well.
At the rear, we can see the ‘micro-hybrid’ and ‘4WD’ badges. Yes, like all military vehicles, this too comes with 4x4 hardware. We can also see tow hooks integrated into the front and rear of the vehicle. Look carefully, and you may feel that the military-spec Scorpio is slightly taller than the civilian version, and likely has a slight increase in its ground clearance.
We can also see blackout lights. Also called ‘Cat eye’ lights, these are used for tactical night driving in low visibility conditions. These allow the driver of the following vehicle to judge and position the SUV without giving its position to enemy vehicles. These can be found on many military vehicles. The video also gives us a quick look inside. The host says that almost everything inside the cabin remains the same as that in the regular SUV.
In the second video, we see the military-grade Scorpio’s cabin in detail. The host, seated in the driver’s seat, explains the changes. The dashboard design, seats, steering wheel, and infotainment screen remain familiar and unchanged from those on the standard SUV. The military-spec, however, gets a warm reading lamp placed to the access of the driver. This is likely for reading maps and other documents in low-light conditions.
Another major change is a Military Green-painted switch placed near the handbrake. This, the host says, is for adjusting the headlamp level. This is wrong! This rotary switch is, in fact, used to control the Blackout lights- it comes with several selectable levels. This Scorpio comes with 4x4 hardware, the controls for which sit on the centre console- a rotary switch to switch between 2H, 4H, and 4L.
The exact powertrain outputs of military-spec Scorpio remain unclear. It is powered by the same 2.2-litre mHawk diesel engine that used to do duty on the pre-Classic Scorpio. On the civilian version, it had an output of 140 BHP and 320 Nm and came mated to a six-speed manual transmission. The military version may have had a slight upward revision in its powertrain outputs.
A few years back, Mahindra secured an order for 3320 Scorpios from the Indian armed forces. The first batch of these got delivered in mid-2023.