Mahindra XUV700 launched in South Africa

After winning the hearts of car buyers across India with its top-of-the-line SUV XUV 700, the Indian multinational automaker Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (M&M) has announced that it has launched the highly popular SUV in South Africa as well. The company announced that the XUV 700 has been launched at a starting price of 4,74,999 South African Rand which translates to roughly Rs 22.48 lakh in the Indian currency. The company will offer the XUV 700 in 3 variants – AX5, AX7, and AX7L along with the only option of a petrol engine in South Africa.

The XUV 700 is Mahindra’s extremely sought-after model and since its launch in August of 2021, the company has managed to sell a ton of it. So much so that the company currently has open bookings for 80,000 units of this model. Mahindra recently also confirmed that the waiting periods have increased, which now are up to 18 or 20 months for some of its variants. As of now, Mahindra is capable of producing only 6,000 units of the XUV700 per month but recently the company announced that with additional investment, it plans to build 10,000 XUV700s per month by the fourth quarter of 2024.

Mahindra has disclosed that it can presently produce up to 29,000 units per month. Mahindra, however, intends to increase its monthly production capacity to 49,000 vehicles by Q4 2024 in order to satisfy demand and reduce customer wait times. The business declared that it will upgrade its manufacturing line with an investment of Rs. 7,900 crores over the following three years. In the near future, Mahindra will be able to produce 5,000 XUV300s, 6,000 Scorpio Ns, and 4,000 Thars. By the fourth quarter of 2024, Mahindra hopes to produce 9,500 XUV300s, 10,000 Scorpio Ns, and 6,000 Thars each month with extra funding. As a consequence, there should be a considerable decrease in client wait times.

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Launched in August 2021, the Mahindra XUV700 immediately blazed up the sales charts. The XUV700, which was introduced to replace the outdated XUV500, is supported on a monocoque structure and comes with both front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive choices. There are two available powertrains: a 2.2-liter diesel engine and a 2.0-liter turbocharged gasoline engine, both of which come with 6-speed manual and 6-speed automatic gearbox choices.

The XUV 700 is the first in the segment to offer ADAS or Advanced Driver Assistance System. It comes with features like Adaptive Cruise Control, Traffic Sign Recognition, Autonomous Emergency Braking, Driver Drowsiness Detection, Front Collision Warning, Lane Keep Assist, and Blind Spot Detection. The SUV also scored a 5-star rating at GNCAP. It scored 5 stars for adult occupant safety and 4 stars for child safety.

The XUV700 starts at Rs. 12.49 lakhs ex-showroom and goes up to Rs. 22.99 lakhs ex-showroom. It goes against the Tata Safari, MG Hector Plus and Hyundai Alcazar. The SUV also competes against the mid-spec and top-spec variants of MG Astor, Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Skoda Kushaq and Volkswagen Taigun.

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