Launched on Valentine’s Day in 2019, the compact SUV continues to see strong demand and has helped Mahindra & Mahindra increase its utility vehicle share in a highly competitive market.
16 May 2023 | 21055 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
The Mahindra XUV300 has driven past the 200,000-unit sales milestone in the India market.
Launched on Valentine’s Day in 2019, it is estimated that Mahindra & Mahindra’s compact SUV has sold a total of 199,363 units till end-April 2023. The remaining 637 units needed to clock 200,000 units would ...
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The Mahindra XUV300 has driven past the 200,000-unit sales milestone in the India market.
Launched on Valentine’s Day in 2019, it is estimated that Mahindra & Mahindra’s compact SUV has sold a total of 199,363 units till end-April 2023. The remaining 637 units needed to clock 200,000 units would have come in the first week of May 2023, considering the XUV300 has averaged monthly sales of 4,847 units in the first four months of 2023, which makes for 161 units a day. All in all, the XUV300 has taken 52 months or a little over four years from launch to achieving the 200,000-unit milestone in early May 2023.
On the export front, nearly 6,000 units have been shipped to overseas markets.
Proof of the XUV300’s strong market potential came in the first month of launch itself. With a starting price of Rs 790,000 at launch, the company received 13,000 bookings in the first 28 days, averaging 464 bookings a day. Thus, it was not surprising that the XUV300 drove itself into the Top 3 compact SUV rankings in its very first month. Within three months of launch – May 14, 2019 – the company had received 26,000 bookings.
Eight months later, in January 2020, the XUV300 aced the Global NCAP crash test with a five-star rating for adult occupant protection and four stars for child occupant protection, the highest combined result in Global NCAP’s #SaferCarsForIndia crash tests at the time. This was the GNCAP test under the earlier protocol. With growing consciousness amongst Indian car buyers for safer vehicles, the XUV300’s strong crash test performance has served as a catalyst to accelerate its sales.
Compact SUV with an accelerating sales footprint
In FY2020, the XUV300 sold a total of 37,576 units, the numbers dropping marginally to 35,965 units in the Covid-19 pandemic-impacted FY2021 but recovered strongly with 40 percent YoY growth to race past the 50,000-unit mark in FY2022 and clock 50,260 units. FY2023 numbers at 60,968 units constitute 21% YoY growth and are the highest for the compact SUV in a fiscal year till now.
Sustained demand for the XUV300, as also for other Mahindra SUVs like the flagship XUV700, Scorpio N and Scorpio Classic, Thar, Bolero and Bolero Neo, have helped M&M increase its overall utility vehicle market share. In FY2023, with sales of 356,961 units, M&M increased its UV share by three percentage basis points to 17.81% from 15% in FY2022 and drove ahead of Hyundai Motor India to take third rank in the UV leader-board behind Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors. The XUV300 contributed 17% to M&M’s total UV sales last fiscal.
In November 2019, M&M had recalled 16,908 XUV300s manufactured between November 2018 and May 2019 because a suspension component (front knuckle) might have an improper metallurgical condition which can cause it to deform in use.” This has been the XUV300’s only recall to date.
Fifteen variants across petrol and diesel
Priced from Rs 993,000 (on-road Delhi) for the base P W4 petrol variant through to Rs 17.78 lakh for the top-end diesel variant (D W8 O / AT), the Mahindra XUV300 is available in all of 15 variants – nine petrol and six diesel – with standard-fit 6-speed manual transmissions. The diesel engine is additionally available with the option of an AMT introduced in July 2019. Subsequently, the company upgraded the petrol to the BS-VI emission norms and the growing demand for petrol cars is the reason that the AMT has now been introduced into the 109bhp, 200Nm petrol motor.
To enhance the SUV’s appeal among driving enthusiasts, M&M introduced a performance-oriented version of the XUV300 in October 2022 christened XUV300 TurboSport. The variant sees the crossover get equipped with a higher-spec turbocharged gasoline direct injection (TGDi) that produces 130hp of power and 250Nm of peak torque. The engine, however, only comes mated to a six-speed manual transmission with the company claiming a 0-60kph time of under 5 seconds.
Smart and well turned out, the Mahindra XUV300 seems larger than its contemporaries and makes for a better five-seater than its rivals.
M&M, which opened FY2024 with sales of 34,694 units in April 2023 (up 57% YoY), has already expanded its SUV manufacturing capacity from 29,000 units per month to 39,000 units by December 2022 and plans to further increase it to up to 49,000 units in the current financial year or 600,000 units per annum. Expect the XUV300 assembly line to be part of this ramped-up production.
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