New Mahindra Thar gets 6,500 bookings in December, suppliers ramp up

The newly-launched 4x4 SUV is wooing buyers with its classic styling and modern set of drivetrain options.

By Mayank Dhingra

01 Jan 2021

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Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Auto & Farm Sectors, M&M, and Dr Pawan Goenka, MD, M&M, at the unveil of the new Thar on August 15, 2020.

The second-generation Mahindra Thar, the quintessential SUV introduced by Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on October 2, is seen to be making strong waves in the market with a head-turning design and overall product attributes alluring buyers into showrooms.

Consumer demand for the new Thar, which had already breached the 20,000-units bookings milestone within a month of launch and pushed M&M to ramp up production by 50 percent, is showing no signs of slowing down.

According to Rajesh Jejurikar, executive director, Auto and Farm Sectors, M&M, “The Thar received overwhelming bookings of over 6,500 units in December despite capacity constraints.”

“The demand for all our brands is much higher than we had expected at this point in time, and we have ramped up production at all our suppliers,” he added speaking to reporters in a virtual press conference today.

50% sales from automatic variants
In its latest iteration, the Mahindra Thar has also been launched in both diesel and petrol automatic variants, alongside the conventional manual trims. The 2.2-litre diesel develops 132bhp and 300Nm, while the 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol belts out 152bhp and 300Nm (350Nm with automatic gearbox),

According to the company, almost half of the sales are being driven by the six-speed torque convertor automatic options. “About 50 percent of the Thar’s sales are coming from the automatic options, which clearly reflect the acceptance of upmarket mainstream Mahindra products,” Jejurikar added.

However, while the demand is strong, there are possible constraints on the supply side, attributed to the seamless availability of raw materials, especially semiconductors.

“Anything around semiconductors is the primary supply chain constraint at the moment.”Answering a query whether the semiconductor import constraints at Bosch are going to hamper its production, Jejuriker said, “While we will continue to have uncertainties with Bosch over the next few months, we would build a buffer and not let it affect our production.”

In December 2020, M&M sold a total of 16,182 passenger vehicles, which constitutes a 3% YoY growth (Decembr 2019: 15,691).

Also read: New Mahindra Thar gets four-star rating in Global NCAP crash test