India’s largest Utility Vehicle maker, Mahindra, will launch two new variants of their popular SUV, the XUV500 in the near future. One variant will be more up market and more expensive than the W8 (could be called W10) and another one will be more utilitarian priced lower than W6 (could be called W4). Mahindra will replace few of its older models like the Bolero and Scorpio in the coming years and this may take place in 2015. These cars will be developed in partnership with its subsidiary, SsangYong.
The first new variant of the Mahindra XUV500 will slot above the current top of the range model, the W8. This new variant will have a lot of new luxurious features and more options as standard. The XUV500 W8 is already pretty loaded so this new variant should really give the competition something to think about. The other new variant will slot below the W6, which is the current base model. This new variant should be very utilitarian and stripped out of many features. So this variant will make the XUV500 a lot cheaper making it more accessible to a larger audience. It will also put the XUV500 in direct contention against the Renault Duster.
Mahindra is chalking out a new strategy to maximize sales and to keep things fresh in their product portfolio. Mahindra will launch a minor update for all their cars in two years, a major update in four and complete replacement for the car in eight years. The new variants for the XUV500 are part of this strategy. Mahindra has also said that they will not add any new cars to their lineup now, but keep improving their current cars. Really aging cars like the Bolero and Scorpio will be replaced in couple of years with their next generation models.
Source – Livemint