Mahindra
Mahindra XUV at a car rally organised among ASEAN countries in India. (Representational Picture)CreativeCommons/PriyankuPhukan

Mahindra S101, sub four-meter compact SUV has been spied testing once again in India.

This time the SUV was spotted in Chennai by the good folks at Motoroids. Mahindra S101, the company's answer to Ford EcoSport is likely to reach the market in 2015. In the images, the tail lights of the new SUV is made of basic bulbs, indicating that the vehicle is still at its early stages of production and is seen camouflaged.

The company is coy about the vehicle's details, however, rumours are that Mahindra's new SUV will be built on a new monocoque platform and is likely to carry the newly developed Mahindra petrol engine.

Talking about the speculated features of the EcoSport's rival, S101 is likely to accommodate features like auto climate control, steering mounted buttons for infotainment system along with safety features like ABS, EBD, 4 airbags and ESP.

The SUV would be a sub-4 meter vehicle and likely to be positioned below the company's XUV 500. If reports ring true, the Mahindra's new offering in the SUV segment will be christened XUV300 in the domestic market.

The company is also rumoured to launch an automatic gearbox variant of its iconic sports utility vehicle XUV500 and Scorpio facelift in India. Recently, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) launched new model of its flagship SUV – XUV500 in India with a price tag of ₹13.68 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai).

The new XUV 500 dubbed 'XUV500 Sportz' is built on the company's W8 model and draws its power from the same 2.2 litre mHawk diesel engine coupled to six-speed manual transmission, which can churn out 140 bhp of power and 330 Nm torque. XUV 500 limited edition offers epical features like stylish sportz body decals, fog lamps and door handles with red accents, rear-view camera, alloy wheels with red inserts, roof-rails in red, sportz badging and leather upholstery.

In May, the popular SUV maker Mahindra recorded 12.86 percent drop in total sales to 37,869 vehicles. The domestic sales of the company stood at 35,499 units in May 2014, as against the 42,104 units in the corresponding month last year.

Sales of passenger vehicles, including Scorpio, XUV 5OO, Xylo, Bolero and Verito was also down by 18.69 percent in last month, registering 18,085 units compared to 22,244 units in May 2013.