M&M bullish on small cargo vehicles market in North India

Homegrown automotive giant Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) is bullish on the growth prospects of small commercial cargo vehicles in North India and is seeking to consolidate its position in the space. M&M is a major player in the segment along with Tata Motors.

The company today introduced its 1.2 tonne pick-up Genio in the Uttar Pradesh market, which is among the top four vehicles market in India. “We are confident this product will perform well and increase our market share in the segment,” Mahindra’s senior vice president (sales) Arun Malhotra told Business Standard here.

The pick-up industry in India is more than 6,500 vehicles per month, while Uttar Pradesh accounts for over 700 units per month. In the state, M&M has a market pie of roughly 70 per cent in the pick-up segment, he said.

The company has various offerings in the sub two-tonne cargo vehicles space, including Gio, Maxximo, Pickup and Bolero Maxi-truck.

Genio has a payload capacity of 1,250 kg and is equipped with 75 HP engine. It is being manufactured at the Chakan Plant near Pune, which has a capacity of 2,000 vehicles per month. It costs Rs 5.11 lakh for BS3 markets in state, while its BS4 compliant version is also available.

“After catering the domestic market, we will look at exports,” Malhotra said. The company has planned regional launches in Lucknow, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Bangalore and Guwahati.

He said, recent interest rate hikes hasn’t dented the prospects of automotives, but further hike could put pressure. “The domestic automobile market is near inflection point pertaining to auto loan interest rates,” he noted. The company posted its highest automobile sales figure of 37,000 vehicles in January 2011 across categories, a growth of 10 per cent over December 2010.

“We are increasing our after-sales service network rather than just expanding dealerships,” he underlined.