Mahindra Slashes XUV 700 AXL Rates As SUV Price War Heats Up

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. has slashed the starting price of its best-selling sports utility vehicle, intensifying the SUV price war in the world’s third largest automotive market.

The AX7 range of the XUV 7OO now has a starting price of Rs 19.49 lakh for the petrol variant as against Rs 21.4 lakh earlier, according to a company statement issued on Tuesday. The diesel variant is priced at Rs 19.99 lakh. This “celebratory pricing”, available for four months, aligns with the XUV 7OO’s upcoming three-year anniversary in the market, the company said. The SUV recently achieved the production milestone of 2,00,000 units in less than three years.

Two new colour options have also been introduced—‘Deep Forest’ and ‘Burnt Sienna’—to increase the range to nine colourways.

“The refreshed pricing aims to make the XUV 7OO even more accessible to a broader range of customers while providing exceptional value,” M&M said in the statement.

The price revision is significant, for it came hours after Tata Motors Ltd. reduced prices across its SUV range by up to Rs 1.5 lakh. The Harrier and Safari SUVs will now retail at a starting ex-showroom price of Rs 15 lakh or so. The electric variants of the Nexon and Punch have seen a price revision of Rs 1.3 lakh and Rs 30,000, respectively.

Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government waived the road tax on strong hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, benefitting the likes of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Toyota Kirloskar India Pvt. and Honda Cars India Pvt. Interestingly, four of five cars that will benefit from this exemption are sports utility vehicles.

“It's important to promote technology other than electric vehicles because EVs alone can't do the job,” Maruti Suzuki Chairman RC Bhargava told NDTV Profit in a televised interview, welcoming the move by the Uttar Pradesh government.

To reduce pollution and greenhouse gas levels, technologies should be adopted in addition to EVs, he said. “The use of hybrids, CNG and biofuels is the means to do that.”