Will the Mahindra XUV500 be discontinued?
Last week Mahindra announced that it’s upcoming SUV based on the W601 platform will be called the Mahindra XUV700. The company revealed the name, logo, that it will be manufactured in the companies Chakan plant and some other interesting details. The upcoming car will get petrol and diesel engine options along with a selection of manual and automatic transmissions. There will AWD capability offered, which will make the vehicle more versatile in it’s segment. The name too – XUV700 gives the impression that the car is better and will be more premium than Mahindra’s current premium 7 seater offering.
So will the upcoming Mahindra XUV700 co-exist in the OEMs line-up or will the Mahindra XUV500 discontinued?
Is the XUV500 still relevant?
The Mahindra XUV500 became the companies flagship vehicle when it was launched all those years back.
The car changed the way a lot of people looked at Mahindra. It was based on a monocoque platform and got a lot of premium features and touches. On the design front, critics and buyers loved the cheetah inspired looks and were even happy with the powertrains and the subsequent automatic gearbox option. The XUV500 also got AWD. Currently the car gets 7 variants all with the 2.2-litre diesel engine with options of a manual and automatic gearbox. The car in the last month sales wise did 603 units. Now the cars like the Tata Harrier, Tata Safari or MG Hector and Hector Plus have done better than this car. Why is that?
Well, firstly the Tatas and MG products are newer and they are feature loaded with better design and integrated technologies. The XUV500 did get a facelift in 2018 and was updated with some new features and redesigning on the outside. The XUV500 overall still has a lot of great attributes and we think Mahindra will not want to discontinue this platform just yet.
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On sale together?
Let’s talk about the Mahindra XUV700. From our previous reports on this car, the SUV is expected to be highly feature rich and get a host of segment firsts. The car will give the Hyundai Alcazar also a run for its money with the features we have been able to spot as it is on test. Now coming to the XUV500. This car can still serve a purpose.
This SUV does not look old, it’s still loved by many for its design and reasonable levels of premiumness. Now if Mahindra’s game plan here could be to have three septrate cars in it’s line-up to compete with the competition. Next year, the Mahindra Scorpio could be taking on the Hyundai Creta and the Kia Seltos head in with it’s pricing. The XUV500 could be retained and updated to fight with the Harrier, Hector, the premium German offering of Kushaq and Taigun, and lastly the XUV700 could be the shadow flagship (if we don’t count the Alturas G4) that will lead the charge against the Hector Plus, Alcazar, Safari and could also target buyers from the Volkswagen Tiguan AllSpace, upcoming BS6 Skoda Kodiaq and the upcoming Compass 7 seater.
So yes, the XUV500 makes sense to be on sale in India. Mahindra has longed to be the number one when it comes to having maximum SUV offerings in it’s stable for all types of buyers. With cars like these and more products like the Mahindra Thar 5 door that have been given the green light for production, we will see more cars more the manufacturer that dominate the SUV space completely.
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