Mahindra Cars

Brand Overview : Mahindra & Mahindra is one of the eight publicly listed companies of the Mahindra Group, one of the largest business conglomerates in India. While Mahindra is now known as a leading SUV maker, the company was established on 2nd October 1945 as a steel trading company. The company then started as Mahindra & Mohammed, a joint venture between Kailash Chandra Mahindra, Jagdish Chandra Mahindra and Malik Ghulam Muhammad.
However, in 1948, Muhammad left the joint venture and shifted to the then-newly-formed Pakistan. With this departure, the company was also renamed Mahindra & Mahindra, with the two Mahindra brothers continuing with the ownership. The company shifted its interests in automobiles in 1954 when it started assembling the Willys Jeep in India under a licensed agreement. Despite Jeep’s acquisition by American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1970, Mahindra continued to make licensed Jeep products in India under license from AMC and under license from Chrysler in 1987 after it took over Jeep's ownership. In the early 2000s, Mahindra started developing its product range under its self-developed research and development department, which led to its repositioning as a major utility vehicle manufacturer in India.

Key Milestones In India : Mahindra started its operations in 1954 as a maker of rebranded Jeep CJ3, popularly known as Willys Jeep, under a licensed agreement with Jeep. For this, a manufacturing facility was set up in Mumbai. In 1965, Mahindra entered into a partnership with Roplas India Limited to set up a production facility in Pimpri (Pune), where it started making fibre-glass bodies for the licensed versions of Jeep CJ. In 1979, Mahindra started the local assembly of four-cylinder diesel engines under a licensed agreement with Peugeot and a 4-speed manual transmission under a licensed agreement with Kia in 1982. Mahindra started offering this engine-gearbox combination in its MM range of off-roaders, which were redesigned versions of licensed Jeeps. Later on, the option of a 1.8-litre petrol engine sourced from Isuzu was introduced for the MM range. Mahindra had a decently successful run in the 1990s with the launch of four-wheel drive versions of Jeep CJ rebranded as Mahindra. It was in these years when Mahindra also introduced Commander, the restyled Jeep CJ versions which later on became highly successful in semi-urban and rural regions. Mahindra also expanded its lineup with more products like Classic (a lifestyle-oriented version of Jeep CJ), Voyager (a rebadged version of Mitsubishi Delica) and Major (an upgraded version of the Mahindra Commander). The early 2000s saw Mahindra launching Bolero and Scorpio, its first-ever indigenously-developed passenger vehicles that were also more urban-oriented than all of its previous products. In 2007, Mahindra partnered with Renault. This move witnessed the launch of a compact sedan Logan as the first and only product, before Renault’s early exit from the partnership for a solo run in the Indian car market. The sedan was later on rebranded as Verito, which was joined by its hatchback version, the Verito Vibe. In 2008, Mahindra announced its expansion plans at the Delhi Auto Show, where it confirmed that it is working on a whole new range of five and seven-seater utility vehicles. It was in this year when Mahindra set up its first overseas production facilities in Egypt and Brazil, where it started assembling the Scorpio SUV through the CKD route. In 2009, Mahindra launched the Xylo three-row MPV, which was followed by the launch of XUV500 in 2011, its first-ever product based around a monocoque frame. During the early 2010s, Mahindra acquired Reva, a homegrown electric car brand, which saw the launch of Mahindra e2O, a heavily redesigned and re-engineered version of the Reva electric car. Mahindra decided to enter the sub-four metre compact SUV space with the Quanto, a truncated version of the Xylo, in 2014, which was joined by TUV300 in 2015. The lineup was then joined by KUV100 in 2016, which is Mahindra’s smallest-ever monocoque SUV. During this time, Mahindra had also acquired Ssangyong, a Korean car maker. As a result, Ssangyong’s flagship product, the Rexton SUV, was launched in India. Another key product of Ssangyong, the Tivoli compact SUV, was redesigned for the Indian market and was launched as XUV300 in 2019. 

Product Range And Segments : Since its inception, Mahindra has primarily remained a manufacturer of SUVs and MPVs, barring the Verito, Verito Vibe and e2O compact cars. After the discontinuation of KUV100 and Verito, Mahindra has become a dominant player in compact and midsize MPV and SUV segments. The product range of Mahindra begins with compact MPVs and SUVs like Bolero, Bolero Neo and XUV3XO. The lineup of midsize SUVs from Mahindra includes Thar, Thar Roxx, Scorpio Classic, Scorpio-N and XUV700, which garner the majority of sales for Mahindra. In addition, Mahindra also has a couple of MPVs like Bolero Neo Plus and Marazzo and the all-electric XUV400, a re-engineered version of the erstwhile-available XUV300. 

Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) : Mahindra might have started as a manufacturer of rugged and bare-bones utility vehicles. However, over the years, the homegrown UV brand has managed to uplift its image as an aspirational brand, which is now looked upon even by urban audiences. In the process, it hasn’t diluted its core strength of having a great sense of ruggedness and reliability in its products, which seem fit for the Indian conditions.
The relatively utilitarian products like Bolero, Bolero Neo, Bolero Neo Plus and Scorpio Classic continue to be top picks in semi-urban and rural regions. At the same time, the other new-generation midsize SUVs have made a remarkable presence in both urban and rural regions, while also helping Mahindra in increasing its sales numbers exponentially. 

Technology And Innovation : In its earlier days, Mahindra used to make Peugeot-sourced engines and Kia-sourced transmissions for its rebranded iterations of the bare-bones Jeep C3. However, when Mahindra began its expansion plans in the 2000s and 2010s, it came up with the mHawk series of diesel engines, a heavily-reengineered version of the 2.2-litre diesel engine from Austria-based AVL. While the 2.2-litre mHawk still remains the mainstay for Mahindra for its midsize SUVs, Mahindra also came up with a three-cylinder version of the same, named mHawk80, for its compact utility vehicles. In the late 2010s, Mahindra introduced the mStallion range of turbocharged petrol engines for its urban compact and midsize SUVs. 

Sustainability And Future Goals : Mahindra is also one of the first automakers to actively participate in the electric mobility space for passenger vehicles. Besides selling e2O after the acquisition of Reva and e-Verito in the past, Mahindra currently has XUV400 in its electric vehicle lineup. The UV specialist has already announced its plans to launch more electric vehicles under the newly-formed BE sub-brand, which will have born-electric models with skateboard electric architecture.

Customer Perception And Competitors : The Indian consumers perceive Mahindra primarily as a maker of rugged utility vehicles, both SUVs and MPVs, which are known to have authoritative road presence, powerful performance and excellent reliability. The rising popularity of SUVs in recent years saw Mahindra becoming a dominant force in the Indian car market, with it consistently ranking as one of the top five auto brands in India. The urban midsize SUV range of Mahindra competes with similarly-priced monocoque SUVs from other carmakers like Tata, MG and Jeep. Besides, the XUV3XO compact SUV has a host of rivals from almost all the mass-market car brands, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata, Kia, Honda, Renault, Nissan, Skoda and Volkswagen. Meanwhile, rugged entry-level utility vehicles like Bolero, Bolero Neo and Bolero Neo Plus have no direct competition in India. 

Closing Thoughts : Over the years, Mahindra has built up a solid reputation as a car brand instrumental in the growth of the manufacturing sector of India, while also emerging as a large-scale SUV maker. With the public interest in SUVs and electric vehicles only to rise in the coming years, Mahindra seems to be on the right path with its product and technology expansion plans.