M&M TUV300 compact SUV launched at a starting price of Rs 6.9 lakh

PUNE: Mahindra & Mahindra plans to export the TUV300, the latest entrant into the family of sub-four-metre SUV, to South Africa and neighbouring countries, a senior company executive said on Thursday.

The executive was speaking at the launch of the TUV300, Mahindra’s second SUV in the compact segment. It is built on a new platform developed with an investment of Rs 1,500 crore, including about Rs 300 crore put in by its suppliers.

The company’s domestic sales have been on a downhill drive in the past few months, but Chairman Anand Mahindra expects the trend to change. “We expect the SUV segment to grow. Currently it contributes 23% to overall passenger vehicle sales in the country and will grow up to 30%,” he said.

Pravin Shah, chief executive of Mahindra’s automotive division, said the company will continue with its focus on increasing exports. “Currently, exports contribute 8% (of sales), which will grow substantially,” he said.

The TUV300 is priced between Rs 6.9 lakh and Rs 9.12 lakh in Pune before local levies and insurance. It is available in three variants, but diesel is the only fuel option. “We see over 90% of demand in utility vehicle coming from the diesel segment. However we are working with (Korean unit) SsangYong to develop a family of petrol engines,” Executive Director Pawan Goenka said.

The TUV300 is the first SUV in India to offer a clutch-less automated manual transmission option.

M&M plans a total investment of Rs 1,200 crore on the new compact SUV

The company has already delivered 1,700 units of the SUV to dealers and is producing 110 TUV300s a day. The production will soon be increased to 200 units a day.

Currently, the size of the segment is estimated to be about 47,000 units and the company is targeting 10% of the market with this newly launched vehicle.

The utility vehicle manufacturer is expected to launch a petrol variant of the S101 in the coming months. Over the coming few years, Mahindra plans to offer petrol options on all models, including the TUV300.

The new SUV has a ladder-frame chassis and is powered by a 1.5-litre M-hawk engine which puts out 84 bhp of power and 230 Nm of max torque. Mahindra claims that the TUV300 can deliver fuel efficiency of 18.49 kmpl.

The three variants of the TUV300 are T4, T6 and T8. The vehicle is available in six shades of verve blue, dynamite red, molten orange, glacier white, majestic silver and bold black. It can be made to order in combat green shade as well.

And they've broken through the wall... pic.twitter.com/HLL5MuSCRm

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) September 10, 2015