M&M's experiment with petrol clicks

Nearly 50 per cent of KUV100 bookings are for petrol variants

Mahindra and Mahindra’s (M&M) first experiment with a petrol sports utility vehicle has clicked with the buyers. About half the KUV 100 bookings coming from the petrol variant. The KUV100 was launched about a month back in both diesel and petrol variants and has got a booking of over 21,000 units so far.

“In the first 8-10 days of the launch demand for diesel was more than petrol in terms of booking. Now it has become even. In the first ten days, mostly traditional Mahindra customers were coming to buy KUV100 and a traditional Mahindra customer thinks diesel. Now, especially after the TV commercial has started, more and more non-Mahindra customers are looking at it and there is an even mix of petrol and diesel”, Pawan Goenka, executive director told Business Standard.

M&M, which had an all diesel portfolio of passenger vehicles prior to KUV100, has faced the impact of a Supreme Court action against diesel vehicles. The apex Court in December imposed a temporary ban on sale of diesel vehicles above 2,000cc engine capacity in Delhi and national capital region to check pollution. The ban is in place till March 31. M&M, which was significantly impacted, had brought a 1,990cc diesel engine last month to sell vehicles like Scorpio and XUV500 in the NCR market. The engine, which was developed for export market, is now being used in vehicles for NCR market.

The action against diesel vehicles, considered to be more polluting than petrol, has prompted M&M to rethink its growth strategy. “We are looking at the petrol portfolio more seriously. Not that we had no plans on petrol. It was always in the works and that is how the petrol KUV 100 came. But we will probably do it in more vehicles now than we would have done otherwise”, added Goenka.

KUV100, the smallest offering from M&M, is a sub 4 metre compact utility vehicle and has been aggressively priced to compete with other compact cars such as Maruti Suzuki Swift and Hyundai’s Grandi10. The KUV100 is priced between  Rs 4.45 lakh and  Rs 6.84 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The vehicle has a waiting period of over three months. The daily booking is nearly double to the production capacity of 200 vehicles per day. The company plans to expand production to 250 units a day by August this year.