While sales of sports utility vehicles at Tata Motors rose 58% to 357,249 units, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) was second in tow selling 354,712 units in the segment during the year, as per industry estimates. Including MPV Marazzo, Mahinda posted a growth of 60% to sell 356,961 utility vehicles in the year under consideration.
Shailesh Chandra, managing director, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, said two-thirds of the sales in the passenger vehicle segment for Tata Motors came from SUVs in FY23. The company outperformed the market growing volumes by 58% in the category on the back of its strong product portfolio and is undertaking de-bottlenecking measures to enhance capacity by nearly a fifth to meet customer demand for its products.
“The steep growth witnessed was catalysed by the launch of several new vehicles, moderating supply hurdles, and the easing of the semiconductor shortage,” said Chandra, with SUVs and EVs leading this volume increase. All four SUVs – Nexon, Punch, Harrier and Safari – recorded their highest ever annual sales last fiscal.
Mahindra too, which has been upping its play in the category with the new Scorpio, Thar and XUV700, trailed closely in volume terms. The company, however, said it is the number one automaker in the SUV segment in terms of revenue share for four consecutive quarters ending December 31, 2022. Results for the fourth quarter are yet to be announced by the company.
Rajesh Jejurikar, executive director (automotive and farm equipment sector) at M&M, in an earlier interaction told ET, the company made a few strategic choices and decided to focus on its core of producing SUVs in 2020. The company’s new launches since – Thar, XUV700, Scorpio (Classic and N) – have seen “overwhelming demand”, with waiting period stretching to over a year on some variants.
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