Mumbai: Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd launched two new small commercial vehicles—Supro van, an eight-seater and the Supro Maxi truck, a one tonne load carrier—on Friday.
Priced at Rs.4.38 lakh (ex-showroom Thane, Maharashtra), the van is targeted at the tours and travel segment and large families. With prices starting from Rs.4.25 lakh (ex-showroom Thane, Maharashtra), the mini truck can be deployed for inter and intra-city transport of goods.
“At Mahindra, we have regularly created disruptions in the market and the simultaneous launch of two all-new Supro products is a clear validation of our approach,” said Pravin Shah, president and chief executive (automotive) at Mahindra and Mahindra, in a statement.
Built at the company’s plant in Chakan in Maharashtra, the models come with a warranty of two years/60,000 km (whichever is earlier) and will be available in three variants each.
Mahindra has invested Rs.120 crore on the platform, reported PTI.
The Supro small commercial vehicles are the second such attempt by Mahindra to challenge Tata Motors’ Ace family of vehicles in the goods and passenger carrier segment. In June this year, Mahindra launched the Jeeto with a tag of Rs.2.56-3.02 lakh. The model was pitted against the Tata Ace Zip and Ace HT.
Even as sales of medium and heavy trucks have been advancing at a brisk pace month-on-month for more than a year, light commercial vehicle volumes have been dragged down by the small vehicles in the passenger and cargo segment. Sales of such vehicles have been on a decline on the back of poor availability of finance, among other factors.
Light commercial vehicle sales declined 9.51% to 149,520 units in the six months to September, according to industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
