is considering another price increase across its SUV range as rising commodity costs put pressure on input expenses. A decision on the proposed hike is expected within the next couple of weeks, Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO of the Automotive Division at Mahindra Group, said.
The automaker has already raised vehicle prices three times this year — in January, April and July. The July revision resulted in an increase of around 2.7% across its SUV portfolio.
Speaking to PTI, Gollagunta said the company is closely monitoring commodity prices before deciding on another increase.
“We’re watching it very closely. As you know, we’ve already taken three increases — one in January, one in April, and a fairly significant one in July, about 2.7 per cent on SUVs. That said, it’s something that can be very dynamic, so we continue to watch it,” he said.
The company is expected to assess the impact of the latest commodity price movements before taking a final call.
“We’ll probably take a call in the next couple of weeks on whether we need a price increase… I can’t say we will or we won’t, but it’s something we’re looking at closely, given the recent price increases on commodities,” Gollagunta said.
According to Gollagunta, the price increases seen across the automobile sector have so far not had a major impact on customer enquiries or bookings.
He attributed the continued demand partly to vehicle prices remaining below the levels seen before the
“No, primarily for a couple of reasons — we’re still well below pre-GST prices, so demand continues to be quite intact and robust at this point,” Gollagunta said.
The company expects demand to remain strong during the upcoming festive season, both for Mahindra and the wider automobile industry.
Gollagunta said lower prices compared with pre-GST levels, along with Mahindra’s refreshed product line-up, could support sales during the festive period.
“Festive should be very good for us, and across the industry, for a couple of reasons. We’ve had inflationary pressures, but the reality is the GST price cuts from last year are holding us all well below pre-GST prices, even with the inflationary price increases we’ve made over the past year or so,” he said.
On hybrid technology, Gollagunta said Mahindra remains focused on electric vehicles and would adapt if the regulatory environment changes.
“We’re very clear in our minds — EV is the end state the country is heading towards, and that’s also what the government has made clear to the industry. If you look at the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) norms, there’s a very clear differentiation between the benefits given to an EV versus a hybrid. So our focus is on EVs to that extent. If the regulatory environment changes, we have the ability to adapt, but at this point our focus is primarily on EVs,” he shared.
On capacity, Gollagunta said Mahindra currently has about 60,000 units of monthly ICE (internal combustion engine) capacity and about 8,000 units of EV (electric vehicle) capacity, and is largely delivering to those levels.
“The next set of capacity increases will happen at the end of March, early April — the 60,000 ICE capacity will go to 70,000, and the EV capacity of 8,000 will go to 12,000. So, where we are now, we’re at 68,000, and we’ll go to 84,000 in about six months,” he said.
Gollagunta also said the company has several product refreshes and two major launches lined up over the next two quarters.
“We’ll have a set of refreshes coming — some of this we’ve already talked about. We have about 5 (product) refreshes; a few have already happened, and two or three more are coming up. Other than that, we have two major launches coming within the next couple of quarters — that’s also why we’ve added the capacity. We’ll have one major launch on the ICE side and one major launch on the EV side, both happening within the next two quarters,” he said.
(With inputs from agency PTI)
