2024 Mahindra Scorpio review: Performance testing
Although not every day has been spent driving it given the nature of our work, I’ve logged a couple of thousand kilometres in the Mahindra Scorpio now.
All has been going well so far. I remember to turn off the auto stop/start system most days when I get in the car and its zero-star safety rating surprisingly hasn’t killed me, yet.
Fuel economy is steadily improving the more time we spend behind the wheel, now running in the high 13km/L range (around 7.2L/100km).
The small fuel tank is a frustration – requiring more regular visits to the service station than should be necessary, especially in a vehicle designed to be taken off the beaten track.
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Range is essential if you’re going bush and only having a 57-litre fuel tank means I am filling up generally twice a week – granted, I average 100km a day commuting from home to work.
The other odd thing was the electrical glitches. They aren’t regular, but they are odd. Sometimes the central infotainment screen won’t come to life. Other times neither the infotainment screen or the dash would ignite.
Occasionally Apple CarPlay won’t connect no matter what you do and there was even one time where the infotainment screen was stuck on the safety disclaimer for nearly 25 minutes.
I won’t let myself get distracted by the screen unless I am unable to use it… in which case it’s the most distracting thing in the world.
But putting all of that to one side, I wanted to see how the Scorpio went from a performance perspective.
Sure, this isn’t a sports car, but understanding its acceleration and repetitive braking ability is helpful for how it will handle on the road.
First up, acceleration. From a standing start up to 100km/h can tell you a lot about a car. It’s not about drag racing or even about being able to claim that it has the most powerful 2.2-litre single turbo-diesel made in India.
Understanding how the car accelerates can help you when making decisions day to day on the road.
Living in Melbourne, you often have to come to a stop before joining a motorway thanks to its red light-green light traffic management system. And when joining a 100km/h road, you really should be going at 100km/h when you merge.
The Scorpio, packing 2.2 litres of Chennai’s finest diesel power, produces 129kW of power and 400Nm of torque. It weighs in at 2085kg kerb, so it’s in the same ballpark as most of its large SUV rivals.
Off the line it managed 12.92 seconds to get to 100km/h. That took 223.05m to achieve – if you want to really nerd out, I have included a 10km/h increment breakdown below.
It went on to do the quarter mile in 18.49s, achieving a speed of 118.23km/h as it crossed the 402 metre mark. Not bad, but not amazing. You certainly won’t be taking on a turbo Barra at the drag strip any time soon.
Next up was braking. I repeated the same test three times, only allowing the brakes to cool for the run back to the start of the skid pan.
The theory here is it simulates repetitive braking, for example, when going down a steep descent with a loaded trailer on the back.
If you have ever travelled across the Blue Mountains or down to Wollongong, you will understand the sort of road where this could be good information to have.
Over three hard stops, the Mahindra Scorpio took an extra 2.65 metres to stop.
Here’s the breakdown:
- Stop 1: 2.75s @ 38.73m
- Stop 2: 3.00s @ 40.72m
- Stop 3: 3.21s @ 41.38m
These aren’t particularly bad times or distances, nor are they particularly good. However, this was in perfectly dry conditions on a surface that isn’t subjected to the same daily use a public road is.
It’s also important to note that whilst it took nearly an additional 3.0 metres to stop after three attempts, it also took nearly half a second longer.
This means means when following a car on the road, you should definitely maintain at least 3.0 seconds between you and the vehicle in front of you, as recommended by every driver training course in the country.
For further context, when we had the Scorpio last year and shot a video for YouTube, it only took 12.32 seconds to reach 100km/h (0.6 seconds faster), but took considerably longer to stop racking up a massive 53.32m over 3.78 seconds.
Click the images for the full gallery
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