- Indian passenger car market will witness introduction of RDE norms from 1st April
- Most car makers will successfully update their models to meet this
- XUV300 on test had the latest twin peaks logo
The Indian car market is gearing up to meet the upcoming RDE or Real Driving Emission norms from 1st April 2023. Among the models that will comply with this update will be the new Mahindra XUV300. We caught it on test today near i-CAT (The International Center for Automotive Technology) which is the principal homologation testing agency and R&D center in North India.
The model on test was the latest update with the twin peaks logo. The rear of the boot had the 'auto-shift' badge on but we are't sure it this was the 1.2 petrol or the 1.5 diesel unit. RDE norms aren't easy to meet and smaller capacity diesel engines might face the heat soon. The test car had the TN (Tamil Nadu) plate as Mahindra has its R&D center near Chennai. The car was being driven at slow speeds in both the first and reverse gear numerous times, followed by evaluation of data on an on-board laptop.
For the uninitiated, the new RDE norms are being seen as phase 2 of the BS-6 emission norms. Under these new rule, cars will require to have an on-board self diagnostic tool that will have to monitor the car's emission levels on a real time basis. Further, this norm is also aimed to make engines more smoother, something we recently saw in the updated Altroz. The XUV300 is sold with two petrol engine options including a recently introduced turbo petrol GDi unit.
