M&M, which has a 10-model SUV portfolio and is riding a wave of demand, has already achieved 78% of its record FY2024 sales of 459,877 units. With four months still to go in FY2025, M&M is well positioned to surpass the half-a-million-units sales milestone for the first time. Scorpio twins, 3XO, Bolero and XUV700 lead the charge.
09 Dec 2024 | 3592 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
Taking a seamless ride on unabating demand for SUVs in India, Mahindra & Mahindra is firing on all cylinders and how! The company, which has all of 10 SUVs in its portfolio, has consistently maintained strong double-digit sales growth in the current fiscal year. As per SIAM and company wholesales ...
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Taking a seamless ride on unabating demand for SUVs in India, Mahindra & Mahindra is firing on all cylinders and how! The company, which has all of 10 SUVs in its portfolio, has consistently maintained strong double-digit sales growth in the current fiscal year. As per SIAM and company wholesales data, M&M has clocked total wholesales of 360,936 units in the April-November 2024 period, a year-on-year increase of 21% (April-November 2023: 298,603 units).
In India’s highly competitive UV market, M&M, which has eight SUVs (Bolero, Bolero Neo, Bolero Neo+, Scorpio, Scorpio N, Scorpio Classic, Thar, Thar Roxx XUV3XO, XUV400 and XUV700), is extremely well placed to capitalise on the surging demand for this vehicle type.
Having crossed 50,000-unit sales in a month for the first time in September 2024, M&M followed it up with a best-ever 54,504 units in the festival-laden October (up 25%) and has clocked dispatches of 46,222 units in November (up 16%). This stellar performance as a result of robust customer demand for most of its SUVs means that M&M has dispatched an additional 62,333 units compared to April-November 2023.
That’s not all. The company’s dispatches of 360,936 SUV in the first seven months of FY2025 are already 78% of its record FY2024 sales of 459,877 units. Having averaged monthly wholesales of 45,117 units in the ongoing fiscal to date, and four months still to go in FY2025, M&M is well set and racing towards hitting the 500,000 or half-a-million-units sales milestone in the domestic market for the first time.
SCORPIO TWINS LEAD THE SALES CHARGE
The Mahindra Scorpio, available as the Scorpio N and Scorpio Classic, is currently the best-selling model for the company. At 109,674 units and up 28% YoY, the Scorpio twins account for 30% of M&M’s total dispatches in April-November 2024. In FY2024, the two Scorpios had sold a total of 141,462 units, up 84% YoY and accounted for 31% of M&M’s sales last fiscal.
In No. 2 position is the XUV300 / 3XO with 67,319 units and a 19% share of M&M’s sales in the current fiscal. Launched in April this year at an aggressive Rs 749,000, the XUV 3XO – the facelifted version of the XUV300 – has given a fresh charge to sales and surpassed 10,000 units in both May and July.
The indefatigable and sturdy workhorse Bolero with 63,426 units is ranked third. The Bolero is followed by the flagship XUV700 which has sold 63,027 units and accounts for 17% of M&M’s sales. The XUV700, which turned three years old in August 2024, has clocked cumulative sales of 235,159 units since its launch.
In sixth ranking is the Thar-Thar Roxx combine with 51,434 units and a 14% share of the company’s SUV wholesales in April-November 2024. The new five-door Thar Roxx, which is more of a mainstream model than the three-door Thar, has helped accelerate sales since its launch on August 14 with aggressive pricing ranging from Rs 12.99 lakh through to Rs 20.49 lakh. The Thar brand’s sales in September (8,843 units), October (7,944 units) and November (8,708 units) are proof of that.
Meanwhile, the all-electric XUV400 has clocked dispatches of 5,531 units in the first eight months of FY2025. But with Mahindra having launched two brand-new e-SUVs in the form of the BE 6 and XEV 9E in end-November, the company’s EV sales will take off from January when the two zero-emission models, which have drawn a strong customer response, enter select showrooms across the country.
On August 14, M&M launched the new Thar Roxx, the five-door version of the Thar, at prices starting from Rs 12.99 lakh. Bookings for the Thar Roxx open on October 3. August also saw the flagship SUV, the XUV700 drive past the 200,000 sales milestone in the domestic market.
What is also helping the company’s sales drive is the sharper focus on safety. In mid-November, the Thar Roxx, XUV 3XO and XUV400 each scored a top five-star rating from the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (Bharat-NCAP). These models have now joined Mahindra’s growing portfolio of five-star-rated vehicles, which includes the XUV700 and Scorpio-N.
RAMPED-UP PRODUCTION
M&M is benefiting from its substantially ramped-up production at its factories to feed its dealers across India and ensure stock is available for customers. Given the strong demand for most of its SUVs, the company has outlined plans to further increase output. In June this year, M&M had confirmed that it plans to further increase production capacity to 64,000 units per annum or 768,000 units per annum by end-FY2025 and 72,000 units a month / 864,000 units per annum by end-2026.
A quick dive into M&M’s decadal production data reveals that production has doubled (up 106%) from FY2015, when it produced 229,212 units, to FY2024 (472,775 units, up 28% YoY). In the first seven months of FY2025, total output, as per SIAM data, is 311,665 units and an 18% YoY increase.
Eight months into FY2025, M&M is 41,972 units behind Hyundai Motor India (402,908 passenger vehicles, down 2%) and ahead of Tata Motors (364,975 units, down 2%). With its higher growth rate as seen in the current fiscal, how close will Mahindra get to the Korean passenger vehicle OEM? Stay tuned in for more sales analyses.
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