Electric Mahindra Thar coming to shock Jeep Wrangler

Mahindra has teased an all-electric concept version of its boxy Thar off-roader ahead of its reveal on August 15 at an event in Cape Town, South Africa.

Dubbed the Thar.e, the Indian giant showed off brief glimpses of the new electric off-roader concept in a short teaser video uploaded to its social media.

Mahindra is also set to reveal a concept version of its next-generation Pik-Up ute at the South African event, as well as seven new tractors.

During this latest teaser video we get a look at what appears to be the Thar.e’s headlights and tail lights which have a square LED signature, as well as an ‘RE.Born Electric’ graphic.

The current Thar has round headlights and generally looks quite similar to the boxy Jeep Wrangler. Plans to import and sell the current Thar locally were shelved after a Federal Court case filed by Stellantis forced its hand.

Stellantis argued the Thar impinged on its design trademarks – specifically, that it looked too much like the Jeep Wrangler.

At this stage it’s unclear if the Thar.e will be built on a body-on-frame architecture, or whether it will be built on a version of the forthcoming Inglo modular electric platform that uses components from Volkswagen Group’s MEB architecture.

The Indian giant revealed five Inglo-based all-electric SUV concepts last year across two new sub-brands, called XUV.e and BE. It’s unclear if the Thar.e will slot into one of these sub-brands or if it will be something separate.

Inglo-based models will use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries with either blade or prismatic cell architectures and a capacity of between 60-80kWh. The platform supports 175kW DC fast-charging and vehicle-to-load (V2L) functionality.

They will offer either 170-210kW rear-wheel drive or 250kW-290kW all-wheel drive powertrains, with the latter offering 0-100km/h time of between five and six seconds.

No claimed range figures have been quoted to date.

The Mahindra XUV.e8, which is an electric counterpart to the combustion-powered XUV700, was recently leaked and is set to go on sale in India by the end of 2024.

Mahindra Australia marketing manager James Halliwell told CarExpert in April this year the company “will evaluate some of those models for this market” and will likely launch an electric vehicle (EV) here around 2025 or 2026.

Beyond the Thar.e, Mahindra has been spied testing camouflaged five-door versions of the combustion-powered Thar for months now. Its introduction is expected to coincide with an update to the wider Thar range.

It’s unclear at this stage if the updated combustion-powered Thar will receive enough design changes to allow it to be sold in Australia.

Current-generation Thar

The current-generation Mahindra Thar was first revealed in 2020 with manual convertible soft-top and hard-top roof options.

In India it’s available with a range of petrol and diesel engines that range from 1.5-litres to 2.2-litres in displacement. The most powerful engine produces 112kW and 320Nm.

There are manual and automatic transmission options, as well as rear- and all-wheel drive setups.

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