German car maker Mercedes Benz India seems be delaying the new M Class SUV in India. Where it was scheduled for a launch sometime now but it has been pushed to late May, said a recent report. Notably, the M Class SUV is one of the offering by the German car maker that India is waiting for long. The M Class SUV was launched at the Auto Expo held in January this year. The Rs 48 lakh Mercedes SUV was expected to be launched in the coming days and after the present excise hike, the launch is expected to be delayed by a month.

Presently the first generation M Class is available in India where the SUV has reached its third generation worldwide. The Mercedes car will be a close rival of Audi Q5, BMW X5, BMW X3, Volkswagen TouaregV6 3.0 TDI and Audi Q7. As per sources, Mercedes could start the model lineup with the ML 360 CDi which is a diesel model and is powered by a 3L V6 diesel engine. The power output of Mercedes Benz ML 360 CDi is 230 hp and the peak torque is 540 Nm. The SUV by Mercedes is mated to a seven speed transmission. It is believed that Mercedes will be introducing further variants on the basis of the demand of the car in India and a smaller 2.2 L powered M Class SUV is also in the offing.  

The M Class will be launched in India as a completely built unit and later the car maker could think of putting it in the CKD channel. The M Class will then be manufactured at the Chakan plant. However, sources say that the production could not begin at the plant before September this year. Until that time Mercedes will be importing the M Class from Germany.