Mahindra is one of the most aggressive automobile companies, making its strong presence felt not only in the UV market but also with tractors and heavy vehicles. The Indian automaker has a huge reputation for its utility vehicles, a segment which has witnessed a steep growth in recent years and this has made Mahindra bring in more number of offerings in this segment. Mahindra currently offers the Bolero, Scorpio, Xylo and Quanto and plans to add many more MPVs and SUVs to its portfolio in the next couple of years.
Mahindra which had once occupied top spot in the utility vehicle segment has gone product offensive and is currently developing a new family of multi purpose utility vehicles based on an all new platform which are going to enter into the production stage by the end of 2015 or early 2016. It is going to make the brand’s entry into the soft roader segment which has an option of large number of vehicles like the Ford EcoSport, Suzuki Ertiga, Renault Duster, Nissan Terrano, Honda Mobilio, Volkswagen Taigun. etc. Mahindra will showcase an all new design language with its new offerings and the brand’s main motive is to deliver high quality products.
The utility vehicle segment is getting further divided into four different sub-segments namely rugged SUVs, premium crossovers and SUVs, MPVs and compact SUVs. Mahindra has differentiated the utility vehicle segment into UV-1 and UV-2 respectively. The UV-1 segment includes the rugged, off-road sports utility vehicles like the Scorpio, Bolero, etc and the UV-2 segment includes the soft-roaders, plush utility vehicles which offers car like comfort but has the stance of a utility vehicle. Mahindra’s strength lies in the traditional UV-1 segment and hence the company has started focusing on the UV-2 segment.
The new initiative will focus on re-building strength in the utility vehicles market. Mahindra is concentrating on the new design language for the first time rather than developing a new product language. The new design language is expected to be a little more flamboyant compared to the popular European designs. The automaker is expected to develop a new MPV based on the SsangYong X100 platform and there will be an MPV on the W201 platform as well as a rugged SUV on the U301 platform. Mahindra will also launch two compact SUVs codenamed S101 and S102 which are currently in the development stage.
Source – Economic Times
