Mahindra looks at raising the bar with its next SUV

We keep hearing of Tata's acquisition plans daily in the media in order to establish itself as a serious global player.So after Jaguar and Landrover it is rumored that Tata could buy a stake[a very small stake] in Ferrari.This strategy certainly has worked in the fact that now globally everyone knows that when you say Tata it also means a car manufacturer.Everybody is seriously keeping track of Tata motors.Whether this would do good to Tata Motors in the long run is the Million dollar question.What does the Tata management have that Ford did not have while running Landrover and Jaguar is something only they know.Whether these acquisitions will help Tata take on the bigger rivals like Toyota and Honda who run far more profitable operations,looks doubtful.

But its domestic arch rival is following a different strategy[although lets say it was forced to adopt this strategy].Mahindra is looking at establishing products which are good enough to take own the biggies like Toyota and Honda.Mahindra is looking at becoming a serious player in the SUV and pick-ups business but the difference being it would be offering diesel and diesel-hybrid engines in order to tackle the rising oil price issue and also please the environmentalists.Its present Scorpio platform would be used as a stepping stone for the US markets but seriously even Mahindra knows that this platform is not competitive against the like of the Toyota's and the Honda's.So Mahindra is developing an all new platform with emphasis on the US markets. It will spend Rs 2,250 crore in the next two years to develop new vehicles to be rolled out by 2009 end.It will be used to fund development of new vehicles including the Ingenio, a premium sports utility vehicle (SUV), a pick-up and a mass market platform.

The premium SUV project will be based on a completely new platform targeted at the Rs 14-18 lakh price bracket.With this SUV Mahindra will move from the lower segments to the more profitable premium segment and take on the Honda CRV[The leader in this segment in India] headon in the Indian Markets.This SUV will also be sold in the international markets where it will take on other international players.

As far as the Mass market platform I remember Mahindra taking about a Utility vehicle for under Rs.4 lakhs.The emphasis is more on the utility aspect as far as this vehicle is concerned and it main role is to bring in the number as far as sales are concerned.This Platform may be used for manufacturing vehicles that can carry goods or passengers.If I remember Mahindra had earlier also said that this vehicle would probably be a 5 seater.This would be the Tata Nano equivalent of Utility Vehicles.

Wishing all the best to both Mahinda as well as Tata Motors in their attempt to become global players.

[Source:Business Standard]

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