Mahindra's Passenger Vehicle Demand Was Stable Post Festive Season On New Launches: Group CEO

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. has not experienced a slowdown in demand, unlike the broader industry, which has faced some challenges following the festive season, Mahindra Group Chief Executive Officer, Anish Shah, told NDTV Profit on Friday. 

Retail car sales in India fell in November 2024, amid a tepid wedding season that could not support demand after a good festive season. VAHAN data showed that the number of car registrations in November fell 13.72% year-on-year and 33.37% sequentially to 3,21,943 units last month.

Talking about the data, Shah said that M&M had seen a slightly different story than other industry players.

“The launches we have had over the past three years still continue to be very strong. The Thar Roxx continues with its success on the number of bookings we have had,” he said.

Demand for other cars like XUV700 and Scorpio N are also stable as the company is still witnessing “some element of a waiting period”, the Mahindra Group CEO noted.

“We are still trying to reduce that (waiting period) by enhancing capacity significantly. So that has come down, but that still is a very strong demand,” he said.

“So for us, we have not felt the slowdown as much and that has helped us in terms of our production as well as getting vehicles to our customers in as timely a manner as we can,” Shah added. 

While the top executive refrained from calling the data suggestions an “industry slowdown”, he agreed that sales have not picked up “as much as they should”.

He reassured that there will be an eventual pick up in demand and M&M is not worried about the slowdown because its products are performing well.

“But that's something that in our view is possibly some element of pent-up demand that will pick up as we go forward. So, we are not again as worried about that because our products today are doing very well,” Shah said.

The CEO predicted a “significant growth trajectory” for electric vehicles.

“The reason for that is the EV powertrain enables in many ways a much better vehicle and that is far superior to hybrid or even ICE (internal combustion engine) in terms of how you drive the vehicle. So that's one advantage for the customer,” he noted.

Shares of Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. dipped 1.53% to touch an intraday low of Rs 2,968.30 apiece on the NSE on Friday. The stock was trading nearly flat at Rs 2,996.75 at 11:12 a.m., while the benchmark Nifty 50 was up over 20 points at 23,972.50.