This week we answer complaints that Mahindra's new Roxor is too under-powered to serve any real purpose:

https://atvconnection.com/articles/a...akes-no-sense/

 

The M151 jeeps that the U.S. military used until the late 1990s had 71 HP and could go almost anywhere you'd want to go. But they could also get up to 65 MPH, on a good day, with a strong tail wind and no cargo or passengers. 55-60 MPH is closer to what some of them would actually do. But they were still fast enough to drive on interstates, and this 45 MPH ROXOR couldn't even legally get on a freeway. IMO it will make a difference to most people.

 

It LOOKS like a jeep, but is still a utv. For the kind of performance you'll get, its very overpriced. If it were say $7999 instead of $14999 or whatever it costs, then I could see it selling. Its a cruiser, not a high performance machine to rip down the trails.

 

It's not street legal, and is less capable off-road than other 2-seat UTVs, so what's the point? If you add all the optional equipment, including lights and mirrors, etc., it's over $19,000. You can get a 100 HP RZR S 1000 with EPS more than $1,000 cheaper than that. A RZR 900 S is a little cheaper than the stripped down base model ROXOR too.

 

I guess they're hoping people will buy it because it looks like a Jeep. That's about all it has going for it.

 

Answered: Is the ROXOR Pointless?

Yes. It appears so.

 

This is the speed this vehicle is capable of with unlocked ECU. 125kmph = ~77mph. Without turbo & 10 Nm less torque compared to Roxor. 45mph is just electronically limited to comply with some sxs laws. Watch.


And this is what these things are made to do in India, daily! The vehicle shown has similar powertrain as Roxor but without turbo and 10 Nm less torque, with extended load bay having an extra leaf spring or two.


Roxor is the US name for a common worktruck platform in India, the Thar m2dicr. It is not for buzzing around the trail, but to pull and move around at jeep speeds. American safety laws just won't allow such a simple vehicle to be certified for highway use. So they had to put it under utv/atv/sxs class just to find a way to sell it. Roxor is by no means designed as a utv, it's just forced to be called one in US. It'll start making its point when the work starts.

 

A vehicle designed to be driven on streets, but isn't street legal, is still pointless, whether you take it off-road or not.

 

Just because it is street legal in India doesn't mean it'd be so in the US. There are no proper road safety laws in India yet. Pretty much anything that moves is street legal in India, animals included. Most of the mainstream vehicles in India are 0-star safety rated. You can't use that as a reference for US market. US has much higher regulatory bureaucratic hurdles to cross to get certified. This half century old structure is too less for that.

That said, there's a news going around the dealer network about an ongoing effort to get DOT certification for Roxor. How it could, I've no clue. In it current shape, its performance is locked out to make it come under utv class.

 

Quite evident when you look at the second video with the rims almost rubbing the ground from this thing being over loaded. Not only crazy but dangerous.It wouldn't last 1/4 mile on any street in the US before being pulled over even if it was street legal. Same for their multi story buildings that keep collapsing.Safety laws are pretty much non existent in that country.