Scorpio, Bolero, XUV700 best-selling SUVs for Mahindra in April-July 2023

The Scorpio, comprising the Scorpio Classic and Scorpio Neo variants, is Mahindra & Mahindra’s best-selling SUV for Mahindra & Mahindra in the first four months of FY2024. The Scorpio is followed by the Bolero, XUV700, XUV300 and the Thar.

Mahindra & Mahindra, which has eight SUVs (Bolero, Bolero Neo, Scorpio, Scorpio N, Scorpio Classic, Thar, XUV300, XUV400 and XUV700) and a sole sedan (eVerito), is among the OEMs riding the surging wave of demand for utility vehicles (UVs) in the country.

In April-July 2023, M&M sold a total of 136,367 UVs, which is a strong 31% increase over the year-ago 103,274 units. Cumulative sales of these top five SUVs add up to 133,081 units or 97% of that total.

With 38,105 units, comprising 35,622 diesel variants and 2,483 petrol variants, the Scorpio is the best-selling Mahindra SUV in April-Jul 2023,

Scorpio share of M&M sales in April-July: 28%

As per available company data, the Scorpio (Scorpio N and Scorpio Classic) has sold a total of 38,105 units, comprising 35,622 diesel variants and 2,483 petrol variants, which makes for a 93:7 percent ratio in favour of diesel. The Scorpio numbers are a strong 163% year-on-year increase (April-July 2022: 14,454 units), reflecting the surging consumer demand for this SUV. Of M&M’s total UV sales, the Scorpio accounts for a 28% share.

The growth accelerator has been the Scorpio N, launched on June 27, 2022, with all of 25 variants across petrol and diesel engine options and five trim levels (Z2, Z4, Z6, Z8 and Z8L). The Scorpio N has a starting price of Rs 12.75 lakh for the N 2.0 Petrol Z2 MT through to Rs 24.05 lakh for the 2.2 diesel Z8L AT (4WD) variant.

In second place is the Bolero with 34,831 units, up 8 % (April-July 2022: 32,254 units). The hardy, indefatigable utility vehicle was M&M’s best-selling product last fiscal – the Bolero sold a total of 100,577 units in FY2023, ranking seventh in India’s Top 30 UVs, a very creditable achievement given the extremely high level of competition in the segment.

The Bolero, sold in three variants – B4, B6, B6(0) – and priced from Rs 992,000 to Rs 11.03 lakh (on-road Delhi), is powered by the 76hp 1.5-litre, three-cylinder mHawk diesel engine and has been updated to comply with the latest safety and emission regulations. The Bolero Neo is a growth driver and M&M plans to up the ante for the model with the Bolero Neo+ to be launched in September and targeted at Tier 2 customers scouting for a vehicle bigger than the Bolero or a slightly affordable alternative to the Scorpio Classic.  

M&M’s flagship SUV, the XUV700 is the third highest selling SUV in the M&M model portfolio – 21,569 units, down 1.34% on the year-ago sales of 21,862 units. The variant-wise split for April-July 2023 sales is 15,263 diesel and 6,306 petrol.

Meanwhile, the XUV300 compact SUV has sold a total of 19,814 units, up 0.97% YoY (April-July 2022: 19,622 units). The sales comprised 10,328 diesel variants and 9,486 petrol, which is a 52:48 ratio in favour of diesel, slightly different from the 51:49 ratio in favour of petrol XUV300s a year ago.

The Thar, with sales of 18,762 units in April-July 2023, has recorded 38% YoY growth (April-July 2022: 13,617 units), with an overwhelming preference for diesel – 15,357 diesel Thars constitute 82% of total Thar numbers in the first four months of FY2024.

Mahindra’s sole electric SUV – the XUV400 – launched in January 2023 has clocked sales of 3,093 units in April-July 2023.

As of August 1, M&M's order backlog was 281,000 units with the Scorpio N and Classic accounting for 117,000 units or 42% of the total SUV bookings.

M&M's ‘problem’ of plenty

These five best-sellers for Mahindra continue to witness strong demand, what with the company recording robust 48,000 new bookings a month. That the Scorpio is leading the charge for M&M is reflected from the fact that of the SUV maker’s total order backlog of 281,000 units at the beginning of August 2023, the Scorpio N and Scorpio Classic together account for 117,000 units or the largest share of 42 percent.

Flagship XUV700 with 77,000 open bookings and 27% of the backlog is next in line, followed by the Thar (68,000 bookings and 24% share), XUV300 and XUV400 (11,000 bookings and 3.91% share) and the Bolero / Bolero Neo (8,400 bookings and 4% share).

Driving towards record sales 

July 2023, when M&M registered total SUV wholesales of 36,205 units, up 29% YoY (July 2022: 28,053 units) and 11% month on month (June 2023: 32,588 units), was the company’s highest-ever monthly sales.

July was the fifth month in a row this year that M&M’s sales surpassed the 32,000-unit mark and also beat the previous best monthly performance in the calendar year to date (March 2023: 35,997 units). M&M opened this year with sales of 33,040 units in January and followed it up with 30,358 units in February.

The company’s robust and sustained market performance can be gleaned from the fact that it has logged 31% growth both in the first seven months of 2023 as well as the first four months of FY2024 (see sales data table above).

In FY2023, Mahindra sold a total of 356,961 UVs, up 60% over FY2022’s 223,682 units but missed grabbing the No. 2 UV OEM rank by a whisker – just 288 units behind Tata Motors. Like Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors, M&M too was a standout performer, increasing its UV share by three percentage points to 17.81% from 15% in FY2023 and drove ahead of Hyundai Motor India’s 301,681 units. 

With eight months still to go in FY2024, Mahindra's SUV sales in the first four months of the ongoing fiscal are already 38% of the company's record sales in FY2023. With sustained demand continuing for most of its models and ramped-up production at its plants, M&M is headed for another record year with estimated sales of over 400,000 SUVs. 

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