Mahindra & Mahindra eyeing African market for new SUV XUV500

Mahindra and Mahindra had launched its Mahindra XUV 500 SUV in India on 29th of this month. The South African launch is slated to take place today at Johannesburg; a day after the Indian launch. During the launch at Pune, the Chief Executive of Mahindra and Mahindra, Pravin Shah had said that the auto major would like to improve its global presence by introducing Mahindra XUV 500in the other international markets like South America, Australia and SAARC countries. The India bound Mahindra XUV 500 price starts from Rs 10.80 lakhs going all the way up to Rs 12.88 lakhs. The Mahindra XUV 500 price for the South African market is kept under the wraps.

                           See More Mahindra XUV 500 Pictures                               Read More on Mahindra XUV 500

Though the M&M manufacturing plant in South Africa handles full-fledged operations for producing Mahindra XUV 500, the units will be shipped as a CBU from India as of now. The Chakan plant near Pune has the capacity to produce around 2000 units per month, but likely to be increased based on the demand. The completely built units along with the components will be shipped to South African division and the necessary training on maintenance and marketing will be given to employees at the South African plant. The South African plant will have its production exported to the neighbouring countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

                           See More Mahindra XUV 500 Pictures                               Read More on Mahindra XUV 500

M&M targets to export around 2,500 units a month to the overseas market. Apart from which, the auto major envisages customizing the Mahindra XUV 500 to suit the market criteria. M and M will however, consider setting up a manufacturing or Assembly unit in the countries like Brazil or Egypt in future. Mahindra XUV 500 is the pride of Mahindra’s domestic engineering team, which had the most innovative use of technology in designing the product. The Mahindra XUV 500 was designed based on the monocoque platform; the design explains the integration of the car body placed on the chassis of the car to appear as a single piece.