M&M to come up with their new SUV XUV500 by December 2011

Mahindra & Mahindra, the top utility vehicle manufacturer of India said it will come out with its new SUV by December this year.

The company has named their launch awaited global sports utility vehicle, as XUV500 and said it will be launched in India and South Africa simultaneously by December 2011.

M&M sells SUVs Mahindra Bolero, Mahindra Xylo and Mahindra Scorpio and has a good share of the SUV market and the company said their new SUV XUV500 will be positioned above their Scorpio. The company also believes that the XUV500 will create a new segment in the SUVs.

Vivek Nayer, Sr. VP Marketing (Auto) for M&M said to press, "We created a new segment with Scorpio. There is a wide gap between 10-11 lakh and 20 lakh range of vehicles in the SUV segment. With XUV500, we believe there is a new segment that can be created."

SUV market for segment below Scorpio (which includes Bolero, Xylo, Tata Safari and Toyota Innova) is about 3 lakh units a year and the size for those SUVs beyond 20 lakhs range is about 25,000 units. There is definitely a sizeable market between them which the company wants to seize with the XUV500. There is a competitor though from the Tata Aria for the Mahindras.



M&M has set up an exclusive assembly line at their Chakan plant. The company continues to build hype around their new SUV XUV500 and it's been in the development stage for over three years now.

XUV500 will be the first indigenously designed and developed SUV entirely and also the company's first global SUV platform. The company admits though that it has taken a lot of inputs especially in the styling department from global SUV customers.

As of now the company boasts of about 200 dealerships in India.