With an aim to position itself as a strong player in the global SUV market, Mahindra & Mahindra has launched its much-awaited premium model, the feature-packed 'XUV 500'. The SUV has been priced aggressively starting at Rs 10.80 lakh (W6 model, Delhi ex-showroom).

The top variant all-wheel drive W8 model is priced at Rs 12.88 lakh, while the two- wheel drive W8 is available for Rs 11.95 lakh. The prices, however, are introductory and are likely to stay for the first two months. From October 1, it will initially be available across five cities, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai.

Styled with design lines inspired from the Cheetah, the 'Global SUV' XUV 500 features a touchscreen multimedia system, driver information system, tyre pressure monitoring system, apart from safety features such as the hill descent/ascent control, ESP and ABS. It is powered by a 2.2-litre CRDi diesel engine delivering fuel efficiency of 15.1 km per litre.

Global launch

With an investment of Rs 650 crore, the first global market to see the XUV 500 will be South Africa this Saturday. This will be followed in the next six months with markets like Australia, Western Europe and Central/South America. Where the Mahindra network is absent, it would use dealers of its recently acquired Korean carmaker SsangYong.

The company, which has a 60 per cent share of the domestic utility vehicle market, has a lot riding on the XUV 500. It has collaborated with international suppliers, tested over 250 prototypes across 2.35 million km in all-weather conditions and in different parts of the world.

Purple Club

To mark the premium aspect of the product it has started the 'Purple Club' where every customer will be allotted a relationship manager at the dealer end for exclusive attention. Promising a "completely different buying experience", around 350 such managers have been trained for the metros.

The hype generated by the highest marketing spend for any Mahindra product ever, has led the SUV's Web site to record 5.2 lakh hits, while 24,000 people have asked for test drives before the launch.

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