Auto major Mahindra and Mahindra launched its high-end sports utility vehicle Rexton in India on Wednesday in partnership with SsangYong motors.
Ssangyong Rexton will be available only in diesel option.
M&M joins the likes of Toyota Fortuner, Skoda Yeti, Honda CRV, Hyundai Santa Fe and Ford Endeavour in the premium SUV space.
Around 2,500 premium SUVs are sold every month in India, with Toyota's Fortuner alone accounting for around 1,300 units.
The company has priced the Rexton very competitively taking this very competition into consideration. "A manual model of the sports utility vehicle (SUV) is priced at Rs 17.67 lakh ex-Mumbai and the automatic version at Rs 19.67 lakh," M&M president, automotive and farm equipment, Pawan Goenka said at the launch. It is of course an introductory price, which will be likely revised after the festive season.
The all wheel drive Rexton will be powered by a 2.7 litre engine delivering 184 bhp and 402Nm torque in the automatic transmission and 162 bhp and 340Nm torque in the manual version.
M&M officials didn't disclose the sales volumes they expect but said will have a capacity to assemble around 5,000 units a year of the Rexton at its Chakan factory in Maharashtra.
Dr Pawan Goenka, president - automotive and farm equipment sector, and also Ssangyong Chairman, said that there won't be any constraint on production and the company will be able to supply to demand.
"Capacity will not be a constraint. If there are more people who buy this vehicle, we will make sure that we supply...This is a new price point for us and so difficult to estimate how the customer response will be. We have set aside a capacity of 500 units per month in single shift. So if we see that kind of response and can sell 500 units consistently, we will be very happy," he said.
Presently 22% of the components in the Rexton will be locally sourced, while the rest will be imported from Korea. Company officials say that they have plans to "aggressively" localise the Rexton, but it will all depend on the sales volumes it can generate.
M&M has invested Rs 63 crore in tuning the Rexton for India. This is the third generation of the SUV, and SsangYong began its sales in Korea in July and exports began last month.
Rexton will be sold through existing Mahindra dealerships, but there will be a separate area and sales support at the dealers for SsangYong vehicles.
Rexton will be available in Mumbai and Delhi for now and it will be launched in 6-7 more cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Pune in a week's time.
Company officials say M&M and SsangYong are co-developing next generation engines. But they are tight lipped on the next planned launch from the SsangYong stable, only saying that there are products in the Korean company's existing portfolio and future pipeline, that will be studied for the Indian market. But their focus clearly right now is driving sales of the Rexton.
Meanwhile, M&M says there has been a good response for the Quanto mini SUV launched last month and demand for its flagship XUV500 remains strong.
