Mahindra XUV500 gets over 7,200 orders on re-opening of bookings

Mahindra & Mahindra(M&M), India’s leading SUV manufacturer, announced that it has received over 7200 bookings for its XUV500 from customers within just two days of opening the bookings.

All India bookings for the XUV500 were opened from 8 June, 2012. The XUV500 is now available at more than 100 dealerships across India, including those cities where it had been launched earlier.

[caption id=“attachment_339196” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“XUV500”] [/caption]

The company is increasing the monthly production of its hot-selling sports utility to 5,000 units by around September-October from the current 4,000 in order to meet the increased demand. M&M also said the nine months production capacity has been sold out for the XUV500. The bookings for the vehicle launched on September 29 last year, were temporarily suspended in October as four months production of more than 8,000 units were sold within 10 days.

Last week CLSA upgraded Mahindra & Mahindra to ‘outperform’ with a target price of Rs 770/share. It expects UV, XUV 500 margins to surprise on the back of strong pricing power. It has upgraded FY13-14 EPS by 10-13% factoring in 4% higher volumes.

Even research firm Ventura Securities is bullish on Mahindra and Mahindra and has recommended buy rating on the stock “M&M with new product launches and strong product portfolio is expected to grow higher than the industry rate. Despite slowdown in rural demand, we expect tractor segment to grow in line with the industry on account of normal monsoon forecast and revival of demand in H2FY12. Further, we expect the company to restrict the fall in margins on the back of better product mix,” it said in its report.

Speaking on the response to the XUV500, Pravin Shah, Chief Executive, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said, ‘We would like to take this opportunity to offer our heartfelt thanks to our customers for the confidence they have shown in us. This overwhelming response in today’s challenging market environment is a testimony to the popularity of the XUV500."

The XUV500 is priced between Rs 11.58 lakh and Rs 14.11 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).