The Mahindra XUV500 has been a terrific success for Mahindra. The company received 5000 bookings in just 6 days after launch and has only opened bookings across five cities – Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai. Furthermore, the interest by prospective buyers has been immense as well with 35000 test drive request. Mahindra is producing only 2000 units a month and dealers have already stopped accepting bookings for the W8 AWD variant. Mahindra has also launched the XUV500 in South Africa and intends to follow international launches in Australia, Western Europe, South America and other Asian countries as well. The company is also planning to launch its latest SUV in China and Russia next year.
The Mahindra XUV500 pricing is introductory, which has led to the mad rush at dealerships. Furthermore, Mahindra plans to cut exports as it wants to satisfy the needs of the Indian market. However, the company has a manufacturing base in South Africa, where it can produce the XUV500 for international markets. The demand for the XUV500 just proves how important pricing is for any product. The Tata Aria did not do very well and Tata Motors launched cheaper two-wheel drive variants to bump demand, citing 70% buyers prefer 2WD. However with the XUV500, the demand seems to be more on the 4WD model. Mahindra also plans to launch an automatic variant of the XUV500 next year.
