Mahindra to Ramp Up Thar Production, Net Profit Up 13% to Rs 3,841 Crore

Pune: Mahindra & Mahindra, the SUV specialist, on Thursday said it is confident of doing better than the industry growth rate, and emphasized its earlier sales growth target of mid to high (percentage) teens during the media interaction with journalists after the September quarter results on November 7.

With demand rising for its Thar Roxx model, which has a waiting period of 9-15 weeks depending on the variant, the automaker is looking to ramp up production.

"The waiting period on Thar Roxx is 9-15 weeks. We are ramping up Thar's production by 1,000-1,500 units due to high demand," said Rajesh Jejurikar, ED, M&M Auto division, pointing out that there was a demand-supply mismatch for Thar Roxx, and the company was working on it.

The maker of the Scorpio model reported a rise in second-quarter profit, helped by higher sales of its SUVs and a recovery in tractor demand.

However, M&M pointed out that delayed rains in some parts of the country had impacted its light commercial vehicle sales in the rural markets, but now its sales had revived.

Jejurikar said the company gained market share in both auto as well as tractor businesses, during the September quarter. "Our SUV sales volumes increased by 18 per cent YoY, maintaining leadership in revenue market share, with an increase of 190 bps YoY on the back of two successful launches - SUV 3XO and Thar Roxx,” he noted.

Mahindra also increased its market share in sub-3.5 tonne light commercial vehicles and achieved the highest-ever market share of 42.5 per cent in the tractor business.

In the tractor business, the company forecasted to achieve double-digit growth in the second half of the fiscal.

Its EV penetration has also gone up to 20 per cent during the September quarter.

“We have lined up fresh electric launches on November 26-27, and rebranded the Born Electric identity to Electric Origin SUVs,” said Anish Shah, CEO and MD at Mahindra & Mahindra.

Meanwhile, Mahindra posted a standalone net profit of 13 per cent on-year to Rs 3,841 crore compared to Rs 3,393.06 crore in the year-ago period.

Revenue from operations also rose 13 per cent on year to Rs 27,553.26 crore.

In the auto segment, M&M achieved record sales volumes of 2.31 lakh units with a growth of 9 per cent from the same quarter in the previous year. Sales of SUVs at 1.36 lakh units were also at an all-time high.

In the farm equipment business, M&M recorded the highest-ever market share of 42.5 per cent during the quarter, as volumes improved 4 per cent on year to 92,382 units.