Mahindra and Mahindra has fallen back on the traditional ladder frame chassis for its SUV, the Thar Roxx.

The trend for SUVs has veered towards lifestyle products with urban SUVs such as the XUV 700 having a monocoque chassis.

With the Thar Roxx, the company claims it has adapted the ladder frame chassis to the comforts offered by a monocoque chassis.

“We are not going away from ladder frame chassis. Our Bolero, Bolero Neo, Scorpio all have ladder-on-frame chassis. Customers want tough, rugged cars and we are ready to give them that, “ said Rajesh Jejurikar, executive director, M&M Ltd.

“It is only when building the Thar Roxx we realised we need to modify the ladder frame chassis to bring the comforts of negligible Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) and other things,” Jejurikar said. He was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the five-door Thar Roxx on Independence Day eve here.

Asked about the nomenclature, Jejurikar said: “Since it is a five-foor Thar, we did toil with names like Thar V but then we took a conscious call that it is a fundamentally different car with a new platform, so we gave it a new name, the Thar Roxx.”

The company is trying to create a moat and is relying on “building volume momentum because with that come better costs, better supplier involvement, motivated
dealers, and a motivated team,” said Jejurikar.

“The moat gets created by volume. We are now able to show credibility to our suppliers that when they are investing in us there is a high chance that we will succeed and they will get volumes to make their investments viable.”