Mahindra will be launching the facelifted XUV500 next month and is soon going to shoot the TVC for the vehicle. The Quanto AMT is set for a July release.
The Indian auto industry is one of the most volatile markets in the world. Yes, if you have known the auto sector then this must be easily digestible. Just like trends in clothing industry, they come and go in the auto sector too. About a decade ago when there were hardly any CRDI engines, the petrol milled cars use to rule the auto industry. Slowly as CRDI technology became a standard in the auto industry; coupling the advantage of fuel economy and fuel prices, the demand for diesel vehicles picked up drastically. So drastically that the auto-industry had to revamp its plan to meet the market requirement.
From somewhere less than a quarter percentage markets then, the market swung in such a way that by the year 2013, more than 60% of the market was ruled by diesel cars. But then diesel was de-regularised, which changed the orientation of the industry overnight. The price gap between both the fuels started narrowing down and once again the momentum started shifted to petrol. It is said that the auto industry was pretty upset with this decision as the companies pumped thousands of crores on diesel engine and related technologies.
That was one of the biggest fulcrums of the market. The next is what we believe is the Automated Manual Transmission technology simply known as the AMT. The Celerio from Maruti Suzuki pounded the market with this technology and it is estimated that 40-50% of Celerios are running with an AMT box. Soon the Celerio was followed by the Tata Zest and Alto K10. While both the Suzuki models used petrol engines; the Zest uses the conventional diesel mill. Now the portfolio of AMT is set to expand with the introduction of the Mahindra Quanto AMT.
We all know that Mahindra has been working on the Quanto AMT which is developed with Ricardo and few other companies. Now the good news is that we have confirmed the Quanto AMT will be hitting the streets pretty soon; we expect somewhere between 3-6 months from now. Mahindra is gearing up with the production line of the updated Quanto, as they have started acquiring the parts for the new Quanto. So people who have been waiting for the Quanto, the wait isn’t going to be long. The launch is planned by mid-2015 but the updated XUV500 will hit the showrooms before the updated sub 4-metre SUV from Mahindra goes on sale.
