Launched on June 27, 2022, the refined, premium third-generation Scorpio model, which doubles up as a hardy workhorse, was M&M’s best-selling SUV in FY2024 and and in April-May 2024; the Scorpio N, along with Scorpio Classic, has helped accelerate sales of 22-year-old brand Scorpio and make a difference in the ultra-competitive Indian SUV market.
27 Jun 2024 | 19075 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
Launched on June 27, 2022, the Mahindra Scorpio N turns two years old today. The refined and premium Scorpio N, which doubles up as a tough workhorse, is an unmitigated success and has played a stellar role in Mahindra & Mahindra notching its best-ever 12-month wholesales of 459,877 units ...
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Launched on June 27, 2022, the Mahindra Scorpio N turns two years old today. The refined and premium Scorpio N, which doubles up as a tough workhorse, is an unmitigated success and has played a stellar role in Mahindra & Mahindra notching its best-ever 12-month wholesales of 459,877 units in FY2024.
There was a lot riding on the Scorpio N, which has been designed at Mahindra Group-owned global styling house Pininfarina, Italy and the Mahindra India Design Studio (MIDS) in Mumbai and engineered at the Mahindra Research Valley (MRV) in Chennai and the Mahindra Northern American Technical Centre in the USA.
The Scorpio N rolls out from a highly automated, state-of-the-art manufacturing line in Chakan, Pune, which was part of an overall investment of Rs 1,600 crore in the project. Its sibling, the Scorpio Classic is manufactured at M&M’s Nashik plant.
Launched two years ago at a starting price of Rs 11.99 lakh for the entry-level petrol MT and going up to Rs 19.49 lakh for the top-spec diesel-MT variant, the Scorpio N’s aggressive pricing strategy, which covered both C- and D-segment SUVs in India which have a market size of around 45,000 units a month, clicked with buyers.
On February 1, 2024, 19 months and five days since its launch, the Scorpio N celebrated its 100,000th sales milestone. Add another estimated 27,000 units for the February-June 2024 period, which translates into estimated cumulative sales of around 127,000 sales over two years.
Zero to 100,000 bookings in 30 minutes
That M&M had a winner on its wheels was apparent three days after launch when bookings opened online on July 1, 2022. The Scorpio N saw 100,000 bookings within 30 minutes of online bookings commencing – that’s 3,333 bookings a minute! And the first 25,000 bookings came within the first minute. At the time, M&M said the bookings translated into an ex-showroom value of around Rs 18,000 crore or US$ 2.3 billion.
At present, the Scorpio N has 29 variants – 11 petrol and 18 diesel – with on-road Delhi prices starting at Rs 16.31 lakh for the base 2.0 Petrol Z2 MT variant and going upwards to Rs 27.66 lakh for the 2.2 diesel Z8L AT (4WD) six-seater variant. The SUV has five trims – Z2, Z4, Z6, Z8 and Z8L.
The Scorpio N is a significant step up over its predecessor, both in terms of price and positioning with the predecessor renamed as the Scorpio Classic and continuing to be sold alongside the new model. This model is a better all-rounder with giant improvements in almost every area.
M&M rolled out the Scorpio N with a host of features like 12 Sony speakers, Alexa connectivity, widest sunroof in the segment, six airbags, intelligent terrain mode and driver drowsiness detection among others.
In its quick commentary on the model, Autocar India states: “The Scorpio N’s move upmarket has brought with it the expected suite of features and creature comforts, and the cabin feels like it could give SUVs from a segment above a run for their money. The suspension, handling and overall dynamic package feel far more sophisticated now, making the SUV a better all-rounder.
Scorpio N helps power demand for Mahindra SUVs
Six months after launch, the Scorpio N aced the Global NCAP crash test with a top five-star rating, scoring 29.25 points out of a total of 34 in adult occupant protection tests and became the first Mahindra model to be tested under GNCAP’s new and enhanced testing protocol. With car and SUV buyers in India increasingly preferring safer models, the Scorpio N has clearly benefited.
This is amply reflected in Brand Scorpio’s accelerated sales since the Scorpio N’s launch. In FY2023, combined Scorpio N and Scorpio Classic sales comprised 76,935 units, which constitutes handsome 99% YoY growth (FY2022: 38,696 units). In FY2024, the two Scorpios sold a total of 141,462 units, up 84% YoY and accounted for 31% of M&M’s best-ever fiscal sales of 459,877 units. That’s not all – it rose four positions from No. 10 in FY2023 to be India’s sixth best-selling SUV in FY2024. While the sales split for the Scorpio siblings is not available, suffice it to say that the Scorpio N has proved to be the sales accelerator.
In the first two months of ongoing FY2025, the Scorpio N and Scorpio Classic together have sold 28,524 units, as per company information. This is a strong 50% YoY increase (April-May 2023: 18,935 units).
This month, Brand Scorpio, which was launched in June 2022, turns 22 years old. Launched at the starting price of Rs 599,000 (ex-showroom), the Scorpio had two engine options – a 109hp, 2.6-litre direct-injection turbo-diesel, and a Renault-sourced 116hp, 2.0-litre naturally aspirated petrol.
It was not long before the Scorpio, which won Autocar India’s Car of the Year award in 2003, turned into a game-changer for Mahindra & Mahindra and has, over the years, ruled its segment nearly unchallenged.
While a number of factors have contributed to this success, the fact is also that the company has continually refreshed the product, upping the ante with freshened styling, adding new features, improving the interiors and also the goods under the hood. A quick look at the early developments in the first eight years is shown below.
On June 27, 2023, top Mahindra & Mahindra executives had flagged off the 900,000th Scorpio from the Chakan, Pune plant (see photo above). From July 2023 through to end-May 2024, the Scorpio twins have together sold an estimated 142,403 units which takes the cumulative sales of Brand Scorpio, which was launched in June 2002, to 1,042,403 units or over a million units (see Scorpio fiscal-year sales table above).
The two Scorpios are the Mahindra SUVs which are witnessing the highest demand. As of May 1, 2024 (and May 15 for the recently launched XUV 3XO), M&M had total open bookings of 220,000 units comprising the flagship XUV700, Scorpio N and Scorpio Classic, Bolero, Thar and the new XUV 3XO. As they did in February 2024 (when the open bookings count was 226,000 units), the two Scorpios account for the maximum number of bookings – 86,000 units or 39% – and are currently averaging bookings of 17,000 units a month.
Over the past two years, M&M has considerably ramped up production to meet the surging demand for its SUVs. From 39,000 units a month in FY2023 to 49,000 units a month in FY2024, the increase in monthly output has been 26 percent.
M&M’s increased level of production is paying dividends. The backlog for the Scorpio twins’ is down to 86,000 units from 101,000 units in February 2024. Like other popular Mahindra SUVs, production of the Scorpio is also up sizeably – between April and May 2024, 28,347 Scorpios have rolled out of Mahindra factories, an increase of 63% YoY (April-May 2023: 17,429 units).
On June 14, at its investor meet, M&M 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. Expect brand Scorpio to have played a key role in the company's strategic future expanded capacity game-plan.