Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, the country's leading utility vehicle manufacturer, has decided to roll out a lower trim of its flagship Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) XUV500 in the domestic passenger car market. The company is looking at boosting its sales amid the prevalent slow market situation and would launch new base variant of XUV500 model sometime by the end of ongoing 2013-14 financial year.
The revelation was made by Pravin Shah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Automotive Division at Mahindra & Mahindra Limited. Shah said that the company is getting regular feedback from its customers and the upcoming lower trim of XUV500 is an outcome of that only. The stylish SUV is termed as the most advanced Mahindra model till date and represents the face of company's yet-to-launched utility vehicles.
Since its launch in the year 2011, the Mahindra XUV500 has clocked cumulative sales around 63,000 units and was an instant success in the domestic auto market. However, the sales have now slowed down and the company managed to sell just 2,200 units of its XUV500 SUV in India last month (June 2013). At present, the Mahindra XUV500 is available in options of three trim levels in the country, which come in a price band of Rs. 12.13 lakh and Rs. 14.11 lakh (ex-showroom New Delhi).
Currently, the Indian auto market is going through a slow sales phase, but Mahindra & Mahindra has managed to tackle the unfavourable conditions and reported positive sales growth. Speaking on the same, Pravin Shah quoted, “In FY13, utility vehicles segment grew by 50 per cent but in the first two months of this fiscal, it has grown by just 4 per cent. Within the UV (Utility Vehicles) segment, those which have come under the extra 3 per cent excise duty, sales have declined by 14 per cent so far in this financial year.”
As per reports, Mahindra & Mahindra is jointly working with its South Korean subsidiary SsangYong Motor Co. towards developing six new powertrains of different capacities. Further, the utility vehicle maker would introduce cars powered by the newly developed engines in the Indian auto market over the next two to three years. Shah said, “Currently six engines of different horsepowers and different fuels, including petrol and diesel, are being developed with SsangYong.”
Apart from the upcoming lower end model of the XUV500 SUV, the company could also be looking at introducing facelift version of its best selling Scorpio in the country as well. However, Mahindra & Mahindra is yet to reveal concrete details about the revamped Scorpio SUV and on being enquired about the same, Shah refused to divulge much and was quoted as saying, “It would be in due course of time.”
Reportedly, Mahindra & Mahindra witnessed sales of 43,460 units in May 2013, as compared to sales of 43,989 units in the same year-ago period. The company saw its sales from the passenger vehicle segment growing by 5 per cent last month, which stood at 22,244 units. The lower XUV500 trim would help Mahindra in combating the sales of Renault Duster, Tata Safari Storme and soon-to-be launched Ford EcoSport in the utility vehicle segment of Indian auto market.
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