Reference Auto

So, Mahindra and Mahindra has made a judicious tactical move to take on competition (read the Toyota Innova and Tata Aria) with the Indian company rolling out a new Xylo with a litany of changes (it now comes with more than 50 styling changes), which include the first ever Voice Command System also.

The new Xylo will be available in five variants and comes for Rs 7.37 lakh for the entry model and Rs 10.25 lakh for the high-end variant, christened the E9. It will come in six colour options – Diamond White, Fiery Black, Toreador Red, Java Brown, Mist Silver and Rocky Beige.

There will be three engine options: the m Hawk engine (120 BHP–88 KW, 14.02 km per litre) with an all new transmission 5 MT-320, the mEagle engine (112 BHP–83.2 KW, 13 km per litre) and the highly fuel efficient mDI CRDe engine (95 BHP–68.7 KW, 14.95 km per litre).

“The new Xylo is the sixth new launch from Mahindra’s stable this financial year,” Mahindra CEO (automotive division) Pravin Shah said.

Well, the new models will not come cheap with these variants being nearly Rs 15,000 more than the previous models.

Shah did not rule out its products being cannibalised (where one product of a company eats into the market of another product of the same company), although he hoped it wouldn’t happen.

“If at all some kind of cannibalisation takes place, that’s okay with us as long our products are sold,” Shah averred.

On the export strategy of the company, Shah said, the focus will be right-hand drive countries, starting with South Africa, where Mahindra had opted for the global launch of XUV500.

Then, it will make inroads into the Latin American countries. But how soon, the company did not specify.

The company clarified, “We will stop production of the old Xylo and the new model has entered the market already. Only the top model E9 will be available in a month,” senior marketing vice-president for Xylo and Bolero Vivek Nayyar said.

Even with a price rise of nearly Rs 15,000, Mahindra’s competitors are mainly Tata Aria (which is priced Rs 4 lakh higher) and Toyota Innova (which starts from Rs 10 lakh).

Moreover, the new Xylo is more fuel efficient compared with the Aria and Innova. The new Xylo has a mileage of 14 km a litre (under ideal conditions though).

The new Xylo has a commendable torque and higher power at 120 Bhp. But the Innova offers only 105 Bhp (even though the pricing is steep).

The Xylo has become one of the highly successful cars among SUVs, selling as many 90,000 units and now has about 30 per cent market share in the SUV segment.

Even with the steep Rs 15,000 hike in price, buyers are most likely to flock for the Xylo, owing to an almost complete overhaul of the offerings as well as the company’s economical pricing strategy for the new Xylo SUV and this could help Mahindra take competition head on.