Mumbai, May 6, 2013: After a year in which it crossed the 100,000 mark in pick-up sales, Mahindra & Mahindra launched another variant of its Bolero Maxi Truck, the Bolero Maxi Truck Plus that aims to take on key competitors in the space, the Ashok Leyland Dost and Tata Super Ace.

Equipped with a range of new features including new interiors and better safety and comfort factors, the vehicle, which has been so far available in Bharat Stage III form, now gets a BS IV variant which enables the company to sell the vehicle in the 16 cities that are now BS IV.

M&M has positioned the vehicle as the perfect city pick-up even as it will largely get sales from the smaller Tier2 and Tier 3 cities. In a presentation, Vivek Nayer, chief marketing officer, automotive division, said that with the vehicle, M&M wants to offer a product that can be a part of the hub-and- spoke model. The vehicle gets inputs in areas such as style, fuel efficiency and comfort. Pravin Shah, chief executive, automotive division, M&M, said the company has invested Rs 21 crore in the product as well as production capacity of 135,000 units. Under the hood, M&M has plonked the m2 DiCR engine that does duty in the Bolero refresh.

M&M’s pick-up range comprises the Bolero Pick-up, Genio, Bolero Maxi Truck and the Camper. The company says is grew 41 percent in the pick-up segment and has a 54 percent market share. The segment sells about 15,000 vehicles a month and about 190,000 units were sold in the last fiscal. In April 2013, said Shah, M&M’s sales in the segment grew 10 percent. The Bolero Maxi Truck Plus will retail at Rs 4.33 lakh, ex-Thane, for the BS III version and Rs 4.43 lakh for the BS IV version (excluding octroi).

BRIAN DE SOUZA