Automobile sector slowdown: M&M offers its personal cars on monthly subscription to boost plummeting demand

Mumbai: Home-grown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra rolled out on Thursday a subscription-based service for retail buyers of its personal range of vehicles to boost plummeting demand. The vehicles under the scheme, which has initially been launched for its customers in Delhi (NCR), Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad, will be available at a subscription price starting from Rs 19,720 per month, the company said in a release. The scheme covers models like KUV100, XUV500, XUV300, Scorpio, TUV300, Marazzo and Alturas G4, which will be available for a period of one to four years in case of a new car, it said.

“We are introducing an all-new subscription model for retail customers of our personal vehicles. With this flexible, affordable offering, we hope to help our customers fulfill their aspiration of driving their desired vehicles without necessarily owning them,” said Veejay Ram Nakra, chief of sales and marketing for the automotive division at M&M.

With plummeting sales month after month, domestic automobile makers and retailers are struggling hard to clear inventory at the plants and in showrooms and wooing customers with lucrative offers. Domestic passenger vehicles sales witnessed its worst-ever fall in August, slumping by 31.57 percent to 1,96,524 units from 2,87,198 units in the year-ago period. The scheme comes with offers such as zero down payments, no road tax, zero risks on the resale value of the vehicle, and a fixed amount that includes routine maintenance costs, the company said in the release. Most importantly one has the flexibility to change the vehicle model after a certain minimum subscription period, it added.