With KUV100, Mahindra strives to strike a chord with youth

It was less than six months ago when Anand Mahindra spoke of new mobility dynamics at play in the Indian auto space and across the world too.

The occasion was the launch of his company’s TUV300 compact SUV where the Group Chairman had remarked that the big threat was coming from the age of access thanks to the Ubers and Olas. As a result, it was a moot point if young people would still be interested in owning a vehicle since transportation was increasingly becoming an affordable commodity.

Fast forward to last week when the company launched KUV100 at the same venue in Chakan near Pune. This time around, Mahindra was not present in person but made up with a video address. He referred to his earlier comment about the Ubers and Olas and added that the challenge, therefore, lay in delivering cars with personality.

The message was loud and clear: city commuters will still enjoy the experience of driving so long as personality is woven into the product being offered to them. Today’s youth have the ‘road warrior spirit’ and, given a chance, will like to own an SUV at the price of a hatchback. In the two-wheeler space, this is precisely what is happening with premium bikes and cruisers.

M&M, likewise, is betting big on the KUV100 to make the difference in the premium hatchback space where it will take on the Maruti Swift and Hyundai i10. Mahindra said that while the Scorpio, launched 15 years ago, was an inflection point in terms of self-belief, the KUV100 is another significant chapter for M&M. As he put it, it has the appeal of an SUV and the compactness of a hatchback.

The R&D team had applied alternative thinking to make KUV100 a reality. While the car has the potential to be a game-changing product, Mahindra was quick to add that the final validation would have to come from the customer. For a start, it has been competitively priced, starting from ₹4.42 lakh, along with other goodies like mileage, space and a host of features to woo the hatchback buyer.

From M&M’s point of view, the stage is set for a larger SUV play because of the rapid transition now underway in the passenger vehicle arena. As Pravin Shah, President and Chief Executive, said, SUV volumes have grown 51 per cent in three years during which time passenger cars are down 7 per cent. Likewise, the share of SUVs in the vehicle arena has grown from 15 to 23 per cent with compact UVs taking up a 45 per cent share by end-2015.

M&M’s market research also shows that while purchasing power has increased, customers are still value-conscious which explains the boom in the compact car space. From the top leadership’s point of view, this is a young country of go-getters who are unconventional, hardworking and bold. They flaunt their personality and are restless. A large percentage drive hatchbacks but prefer an SUV. And this is where the KUV100 comes in as the alternative.

Pawan Goenka, Executive Director, said at the launch that the best part about the latest offering lay in the common thread of passion and self belief across the M&M team. For them, the goal was to constantly innovate, think bigger and defy the naysayers. “We try to learn from customers, dealers and suppliers and have reinvented ourselves by listening to them,” he said.

With the KUV100, M&M is charting new territory in terms of a customer who looks at the world differently. Petrol is a new drive too and the company plans to leverage the online space in a big way for its retail efforts. As Goenka quipped, this was the longest press release from M&M in recent times which pretty much put in perspective the relevance of the KUV100. The ball is now in the customer’s court.

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