Mumbai, Oct 7: The country's top SUV maker Mahindra & Mahindra today said its seven-day-old sport utility vehicle XUV500 has received a whopping 5,000-plus bookings from the five cities where it is available now.
The bookings for the XUV500 opened across Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai on October 1.
The four-wheeler is the country's first SUV developed on the monocoque platform.
Priced in the range of Rs 10.8 lakh to Rs 11.95 lakh, this is the first vehicle from the M&M stable on an international platform, and it was launched in South Africa a day after the India launch.
Speaking on the huge response to XUV500, M&M Chief Executive for automotive division Rajesh Jejurikar said, “It is a delight for us that the XUV500 has garnered over 5,000 bookings in a mere six days from just five cities.”
The company said in a statement that the buzz associated with the launch of the XUV500 on social media has been phenomenal with 1.5 lakh viewers watching the live launch webcast, while website has so far received 8.5 lakh unique visitors (in two weeks) and 35,000 test-drive requests.
The XUV500 was designed entirely in-house at Mahindra's R&D facility at the Mahindra Research Valley at Chennai under the leadership of Ramkripa Ananthan, who led a 20-member all-Indian styling team to work on this 2.2 L vehicle, which also is the first transverse engine offering from Mahindra.
Launching the vehicle, vice-chairman Anand Mahindra had said that his objective was to use it as a springboard for the group's global ambitions.
“The XUV500 will get us the high seat in the global auto world. It is a strong and bold step towards becoming a globally recognised SUV brand,” Mahindra said, adding that for the domestic market, the objective was to create a mass market in the premium space.
If the initial response is any indication, the company has almost achieved that. Also, the company may have to revise its initial plan of rolling out just 2,000 units a month from the Chakan, Pune plant. PTI
