Mahindra plans a 12-pronged assault

MUMBAI: Mahindra & Mahindra has charted out an aggressive product-launch plan of a dozen models in the coming three-four years, as it seeks to arrest the slide in its share in an intensely competitive utility vehicle market.
The marketing and product launch plans of the maker of the XUV 500 and Scorpio are aimed at least at holding to its market share if not growing it, managing director Pawan Goenka said. Its market share has almost halved in the past five years, even as action has picked up in the utility space this year with the entry of new players like MG Motor and Kia Motors.

“The customers' tastes are changing very rapidly and the competitive intensity is rising with many entrants looking at India as the primary market with products,” Goenka told ET. “Therefore, for us to remain where we are, we have to do a lot more with the products — because of the technology pressure, customer pressure and competition pressure.”

The company plans to launch a new-generation XUV 500, codenamed W601, in the next fiscal year starting April, Goenka said. An all-new Scorpio, codenamed Z101, and the Thar SUV being developed as W501 too are set to hit the market in fiscal 2021.

These will be followed by a mid-sized SUV in FY22, to rival the Hyundai Creta, based on the B-segment architecture of Ford Motor with which Mahindra has a partnership, said people in the know. This vehicle is codenamed S204.

Apart from coming out with new-generation models which will sport 1.2-, 1.5- and 2-litre petrol engines, Mahindra is also aiming to launch electric versions of the KUV, XUV 300 and a sedan based on Ford’s Aspire architecture, ensuring that it addresses various segments of the market, from personal to fleet, and urban to rural.

Mahindra, like in the past, will continue to offer the existing generation of the Scorpio and XUV 500 to cater to different price brackets, even after launching the new versions next financial year.

Like the rest of the market, Mahindra has been hit badly by a downturn, despite having fresh products like the Marazzo, XUV 300 and Alturas in its portfolio. The company has not been able to attain its target of selling 9,000 units a month among these three products — the average has been about 5,500 in the past nine months.

In the first seven months of this financial year, Mahindra posted a 15% decline in sales, compared with a 20% fall in the market. Its utility vehicle market share has slipped to a record low of 21.33%. Its sales in the segment fell 13% in this period, even as the market for utility vehicles remained flat.

In the overall passenger vehicle market, it however has done better than the market. In fact, its share has increased 0.4 percentage point in this space.

Goenka said he would not look at the utility vehicle share alone as the entire market was veering towards UVs, and it was fair to look at the passenger vehicle share where the company has witnessed a marginal improvement.

“Frankly, to look at the UV market share doesn't have as much meaning because UVs are replacing sedans and hatchbacks. Companies are getting the UV market share at the cost of their cars share and therefore, for us, the UV share is going down as the pond is becoming larger and we are the only serious UV player, and we will further reinforce it,” Goenka said.