Mahindra & Mahindra launches first of 9 new offerings this fiscal

Kicking off the launch of its first new product of a proposed nine product launches slated for fiscal 2015-16, Mahindra & Mahindra today introduced the refreshed version of its XUV500 SUV that will be on offer at dealerships almost immediately. First introduced in September 2011, the flagship SUV reached its 100,000 unit milestone in 34 months of its rollout.

Of the nine products planned, three will be entirely new platforms, three will be major refreshes and three minor refreshes, said Dr Pawan Goenka, executive director, at the launch in New Delhi.

The new XUV 500 is part of the major refreshes and comes at a starting price of Rs 11.21 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). It will be available in six variants with the top- end variant W10 AWD being introduced for the first time. Thus far, the XUV 500 was on offer in the base version of W4, W6 and W8. The top-end W10 FWD variant is priced at Rs 14.99 lakh while the AWD comes at Rs 15.99 lakh. The W8 variant will also come in FWD and AWD options.

This makes the XUV 500 W10 lower in price by Rs 82,000 compared to the Toyota Innova ZX and Rs 2.5 lakh in comparison to the Toyota Altis D-4DGL with its power and torque higher by 40 percent compared to the Innova and 58 percent more than the Altis, according to Pravin Shah, president and chief executive (Automotive), Mahindra & Mahindra.

The new XUV 500 comes with 31 changes of which the important ones are the new electric sunroof with anti-pinch, ORVM logo projection lamps, new push- button start, new 18cm touch-screen infotainment with GPS navigation, USB audio, video, picture viewer, Bluetooth, iPod connectivity and AUX input and Mahindra blue sense technology.

The company says the existing mHawk engine has been further refined to deliver a higher mileage of 16kpl compared to 15.1kpl earlier.

Two new colours have been added to the new SUV including a sunset orange and pearl white taking it upto 7 colours.

Dr Goenka said that the e-Verito will be launched this quarter but will not be part of the nine-product game-plan. “The future of the Verito is in the electric version and not so much in petrol and diesel. The electric vehicle segment has got new life with government’s initiatives.”

Two new products will also figure in the compact SUV segment that will draw its volumes partly from existing products and partly from growing the market.

He is bullish that the new XUV 500 will draw new customers into its fold as will the compact SUV attracting customers from the hatchback and sedan segments as well. Dr Goenka visualises many new players entering this segment that will see frequent refreshes and replacement of products and buzz with activity.

In terms of the government’s recent FAME India launch to boost electric vehicle sales in the country, Dr Goenka feels that subsidies are increasing interest in EVs and efforts are being made by the government to make the initiative a success at the ground level. M&M has three EVs in its stable – the e-Verito, e20 and the e-Maxximo which was till recently been run in a pilot project at Agra.

Dr Goenka, who was part of prime minister Narendra Modi’s delegation to South Korea recently, says the Korean auto industry has well defined rules and regulations that don’t change, which offers OEMs a good opportunity to plan long term. He urged the Indian government to plan long term and stick to it. Secondly, the entire Korean supply chain ecosystem works smoothly and enables planning of  production. Third is the skilling of personnel and the quality of skills imparted. “As we increase the number of skilled people, the quality of skilling is also very important and our average is lower than that of developed nations. We need to develop it if we want to become a manufacturing nation.”

Hence, environment and ecosystem are as relevant to increasing manufacturing in India as is ease of doing business.  Dr Goenka is of the opinion that South Korea has grown in manufacturing not only due to the cost of manufacturing, which is very high compared to India, but due to advanced technologies in manufacturing. So, he said, it is necessary to have our own IPR and R&D with a focus on technology and products to compete on an even keel.

M&M also plans to scale up its penetration in export markets. Its highest exports currently are to neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, followed by South Africa and Chile. Slowly, it is raising its penetration in Italy as well.