Mahindra & Mahindra, which is among the OEMs making a speedy ride on the surging wave of demand for SUVs in India, has reported sale of 30,238 SUVs in November 2022, up 56% (November 2021: 19,384). The company also sold 154 e-Veritos, which augments the November total to 30,392 units, also up 56% year on year.

For the April-November 2022 period, cumulative SUV sales are 229,516 units, up 75% over the 131,434 units sold in the year-ago period. And, in the first 11 months of calendar year 2022, M&M has crossed the 300,000-unit mark with 306,643 units including cars, which makes for YoY growth of 65 percent.

A close look at the numbers for the first eight months of the ongoing fiscal reveals that the company has driven past FY2022’s SUV sales of 223,682 units, with four months still to go in the fiscal. The previous best for the company was 235,362 SUVs in FY2019, which will be surpassed this December. And over a 10-year period, M&M has crossed the 2-million SUV sales milestone (see SIAM SUV industry sales stats below).

M&M's UV sales 
FY2014: 219,421 units
FY2015: 206,837 units
FY2016: 222,324 units
FY2017: 222,541 units
FY2018: 233,915 units
FY2019: 235,362 units
FY2020: 179,405 units
FY2021: 155,530 units
FY2022: 223,682 units
FY2023: 229,516 units*
Total: 2,128,533 units
*April-Nov '22

The company, at the beginning of November, had an order bank of 260,000 units, essentially comprising five models led by the recently-launched Scorpio N and Scorpio Classic (130,000 units), XUV700 (80,000 units), Thar (20,000 units), Bolero and Bolero Neo (13,000 units) and the XUV300 (13,000 units).

Given this scenario, M&M has announced an aggressive manufacturing capacity expansion programme, designed to increase production by 68% to over 600,000 units per annum over the next 12-15 months. This will see the monthly output grow from 29,000 units in Q4 FY2022 to 49,000 units by January-March 2024 (Q4 FY2024).

Commenting on November 2022’s sales, Veejay Nakra, President, Automotive Division, M&M Ltd., “Our sales volume continued to grow in November powered by robust demand across our portfolio. We sold 30,238 SUVs in November, registering a growth of 56%. The supply chain situation continues to be dynamic due to continuing international disruptions. We are keeping a close watch and are taking appropriate steps.”