Mahindra & Mahindra may launch revamped variants of the Xylo and Quanto

Mahindra’s Xylo and Quanto have not being doing well in terms of sales figures. Addressing this trend, the carmaker is planning to bring revised models of the same, to give them the needed push in the market.

The MUV from Mahindra, the Xylo, and the sub-four-metre car, the Quanto, both have been performing really poorly in terms of sales as compared to the Scorpio and the XUV 500. Mahindra has been selling about 700 units of the Quanto on an average in a month. This is considerably low, as 4,279 units of the same were sold during September and October. The Scorpio and XUV 500 have been selling pretty well for the manufacturer but only 9,302 units of the Xylo were sold in the period from April to October this year contrasting to the 14,472 units of the Xylo sold during the same period in 2012. This 40 percent drop in sales has got the manufacturer concerned and so it is gearing up to improve the same.

Pawan Goenka, President, M&M Ltd, said, “Even within the company, there’s no unanimous view on why it is not working. The marketing team has one view, the product team has its own, and the manufacturing team has another view. But we have got a fairly good grip on why the Xylo is not working as well as the Bolero, Scorpio, XUV or pick-ups.”

However, Mahindra will not be discontinuing the existing models but will definitely work on remodeling their existing cars. The Xylo, which will complete five years in January 2014, may be given a makeover. With sightings of a compact SUV codenamed S101 being tested by the carmaker, there is possibility of a new car being introduced in 2014. However, there are no reports whether it will replace the Quanto or sell simultaneously. There are also speculations that the seven-seater Quanto might get an upgrade to the seating layout making it a five-seater one. It might be packed with several other features and there might be changes to the exteriors as well.

“In M&M we don’t work on the concept of number of years to breakeven but we work on an IRR (Internal Rate of Return). That is usually 5-7 years. In 5-7 years of a product, we should get a certain IRR. That doesn’t mean the project breaks even in 5-7 years. In auto, it is not practically possible to withdraw a product after two years because of the high investments made in those projects,” added Goenka when asked about the company’s plans about stopping productions of any models.