Mahindra announces 2018 XUV500, priced Rs 12.3 lakh onwards

MUMBAI: Mahindra today rolled out a new variant of its premium sports utility vehicle XUV 500 in a bit to wrest back the market that once it had dominated as the market pie gets fragmented with the entry of more players like Maruti, Jeep's Compass, Hyundai's Creta and Tata Hexa.

The company has invested Rs 150 crore in developing the third generation of XUV 500--first launched in 2011, which comes with enhanced features like a smart watch connectivity and connected apps and eco-sense technology among others, Mahindra & Mahindra automotive sector president Rajan Wadhera said at the launch here.

The company has sold 2.32 lakh XUV 500s since the launch in 2011, sales and marketing chief Veejay Nakra said, adding the first variant was launched in 2015.

The introduction of the face-lift version is also its bid reclaim its position as the largest UV maker in the country, something it had lost to Maruti Suzuki a couple of years ago. In FY18, with over 27.5 per cent market share the nation's largest passenger car maker led the UV segment by a wide margin over Mahindra.

The new refreshed XUV comes with five diesel variants and a petrol model. While the diesel model is priced at Rs 12.32 lakh, the petrol variant comes at Rs 15.43 lakh.

Launched in 2011, Mahindra had brought out the first facelift of its mid-sized SUV in 2015.

"We have been working on this product for tow-three years. We have taken off a lot of cost to retain the value. As a result we have launched this product at a very competitive price," Wadhera said.

Since its launch in 2011, the XUV500 has been a trendsetter in the premium SUV segment with its great value proposition. The vehicle created the premium SUV segment in the Rs 12-18 lakh price range in the country and continues to be the front runner in the segment, he claimed.

"Today, with the launch of the new XUV500, we have strengthened its value proposition further by creating new benchmarks," he added.

Evading a direct response to the market share the company was looking at with the launch of new product, Wadhera said, "it is the function of how many products are coming in the segment. We are obviously looking for a better market share and aim to grow higher than the industry average."

He, however, acknowledged that the entry of the Compass and the Hexa had changed the market share, adding, earlier our markets share was very high with the Scorpio and the XUV and we were a dominating player."

Nakra said the company plans to set up 500 more new touchpoints as it aims to roll out three more new product in this fiscal.

Utility vehicle volumes grew 20.97 per cent to 921,780 units last fiscal as against 761,998 units in FY17. In FY18, UV sales accounted for 28 per cent of total PV sales, up from 25 per cent in the previous fiscal, according to Siam data.

Mahindra's PV sales during FY18 stood at 248,859 units, a growth of 5.4 per cent over the previous year, as per the Siam data.

Against this, Maruti Suzuki topped the UV segment with a 27.53 per cent market share in FY18 selling 253,759 units riding on the success of its models like Vitara Brezza, Ertiga and the S-Cross.

Its volumes rose 29.6 per cent at 253,759 units in FY18, from 195,741 units in the previous year, Maruti said.

While Vitara Brezza volume rose 36.7 per cent in 2017 -18, S-Cross saw sales jump 44.4 per cent and 4.1 per cent for the Ertiga, the company said.