Mahindra's XUV 300 set to take on SUV rivals

After back to back launches in the utility vehicle (UV) segment, home grown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Thursday launched the much anticipated XUV 300 at a starting price of Rs 7.90 lakh for petrol and Rs 8.49 lakh for diesel version.

The vehicle also marks M&M’s another attempt to gain significant market share in the high volume generating compact SUV segment, after its previous offering TUV 300 couldn’t match the sales number churned by the UVs of rival carmakers. 

Anand Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra believes that new vehicle will certainly sell more than XUV 300’s bigger variant and one of the company’s best selling model the XUV 500. Reports say M&M is aiming to sell around 6,000 units of the vehicle per month and combined with its two other recent launches — Marazzo and Alturas — the auto major is confident of attaining the 9,000 units per month mark

If M&M achieves the desired sales figure from XUV 300, it will gain a significant share in the compact UV segment which generates monthly domestic volumes of 23,000-28,000 units and is currently dominated by Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza. Other notable players in the segment are Ford EcoSport and Tata Nexon.

What also makes M&M confident is because of the platform XUV300 is based on — the X-100 platform — the same platform that was used in the popular SsangYong Tivoli. The company also noted that since its launch in 2015, SsangYong has sold 2.6 lakh units so far and it continues to enjoy 35 per cent market share in South Korea. 

“Tivoli changed the fortunes of SsangYong, today it is the third largest automaker in South Korea, we have the same expectation here for the XUV 300,” Anand Mahindra said.
However, despite having the biggest product portfolio in the segment, M&M’s share in the utility vehicle space is currently below 30 per cent.

Talking about the company’s recent launches, Mahindra said that they have been very busy in the past few months and these are amongst the most significant times in the company’s automotive journey. The synergies drawn from various global product development bases  — from the Mahindra North America Technical Centre and Pinninfarina in Italy to SsangYong in South Korea and Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai — is delivering competitive modern products for its India portfolio, he noted. 

The company also has plans to introduce electric variant of XUV 300 in the second half of 2020. Managing Director Pawan Goenka also said that the engine is BS VI compliant but the modifications on the exhaust and other related changes could be done only after BS VI fuel is available.