Mahindra wants to prove itself as a strong competitor to other automobile giants especially those eyeing the SUV segment in the country and plans an onslaught of atleast three SUV’s till 2016. Mahindra has proven substantial potential with the XUV500 which is truly a world-class product. It has always led the utility vehicle market in India with powerful and rugged vehicles and has also proven it’s prowess with upscale SUVs like the Scorpio and now the XUV. Mahindra now feels confident that it can provide powerful, well-built and well featured off-roaders.
Mahindra also has the advantage of technology with inputs from it’s Korean owned brand Ssangyong. In fact there are two new platforms under development, one each by Mahindra and Ssangyong, on which the future SUVs will be based. Mahindra also wants to popularize its Korean brand in the market. The current Ssangyong offering Rexton has been appreciated but at the same time isn’t finding many buyers. Mahindra has its hopes high on another SUV Rodius, an ultra large, four row vehicle. Ssangyong is also developing another new SUV codenamed X100 which will be launched by 2015-16.
Apart from the SUV onslaught planned for the future, Mahindra will be majorly refreshing the Scorpio. Then there is the compact SUV codenamed S101 in the making for the near future, which hopes to tap on the markets hot favourite segment. The current compact segment is ruled by the Renault Duster and players like Ford are soon to enter the same with the EcoSport, the competition is only about to get tougher. Major automakers like Volkswagen, Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai are yet to enter the segment and they already have their products under development. So it’s not got going to be a cake walk and competition will be very tough.
