Mahindra & Mahindra Limited is all poises to consolidate its market share in the country’s passenger utility vehicle market as it rolls out its latest and by far its smallest utility vehicle KUV100.
The automotive major has also hinted that it plans to export KUV100 in some of the neighbouring countries and right hand drive markets.
Launching the KUV100 in Hyderabad, Ashish Malik, Vice-President, Marketing, Automotive Division, M&M, said that the new model launched by the company is its ninth during the current financial year and would be pitted in a segment where the company was not present thus far, addressing the Compact cars/SUV segment.
Describing the KUV100 as a game changer fro the company, Malik said that it is being offered in a sub Rs 7 lakh segment, where no other company is offering a similar model.
The compact SUV and hatchback sales account for about one lakh units per month and this offering is pitted in this segment. The company sees a potential for about 8-10 per cent or about 10,000 units in this category.
Referring to the utility vehicle segment in the country, he said that in the first nine months of this fiscal ended December 31, 2015, the average sales have been about 47,000 to 50,000 units per month and of this M&M has 40 per cent market share. “We expect this share to go up with the lunch of the new model and good numbers TUV 300 has been generating after its launch earlier this fiscal,’ he said.
Referring to the passenger car market, Malik said that in the first nine months the total volumes have been about 1.51 million as against 1.36 million during the corresponding nine months last year, thereby registering a growth of 11.5 per cent.
The utility vehicle market has seen total volume of 4.03 lakh in the nine months ended December 2015, registering a growth of 4 per cent over same period last year. Last year, the UV market saw total sales of 5.27 lakh units.