M&M turns to the fundamentals once more to reclaim market share for SUVs

The Scorpio-N, the automaker's latest attempt to reclaim market share from successful city customers in the sport utility vehicle (SUV) sector, is anticipated to increase sales for the company in the growing, mid-sized, and premium SUV segments.

The Scorpio-N is a component of M&M's strategy to appeal to a new demographic by enhancing and altering the appeal of its current brand. The brand-new Thar's unstoppable success is an illustration of that strategy.

The C and D classes of SUVs, as they are referred to correspondingly, make up close to 16% of the entire passenger car market in India, with a combined annual market measurement of approximately 500,000 pieces.

According to industry experts, the Scorpio-N, built on a new platform with "no carryover from the existing Scorpio," is likely to profit from the positive spillover effect of recent successes like the Thar and XUV700, possibly limiting the risk of cannibalization within its own portfolio because it seems to attract a brand-new group of urban customers.

As competition from South Korean and domestic automakers intensifies, Mahindra & Mahindra's market share in the utility vehicle segment dropped to 15% in FY22 from 53% in FY12 a decade prior. For it to regain market share in the UV segment, where it is currently the fourth-largest player after Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, and Tata Motors, the success of its new Scorpio, also saw the model's market share fall to just under 2 percent from 22 percent a decade ago, will be key.