Leading utility vehicle player Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is focusing on tapping the traffic congested metro city market for its newly launched Scorpio Automatic as the company looks at positioning the car as the most fuel efficient in its category.
"Usually the mileage drops by 20 per cent for automatic variants of vehicles compared to the manual variant, however in case of the Scorpio Automatic the mileage will drop by only one kilometer per litre(kmpl) on city roads and by half kmpl for highway driving.", claimed Ashish Malik, general manager, marketing, automotive sector, M&M.
"The manual drive Scorpio gives an average mileage of 10.6 kmpl in city and 13.6 kmpl on highway", Malik added quoting a car magazine.
"Around 85 per cent of the total automotive sales in the US are automatic gear cars, and the market is still nascent in India. M&M is the first Indian auto major to enter the market with an SUV that is priced sub Rs15 lakh", Malik said. The Scorpio Automatic is priced at Rs 10.33 lakh and above ex-showroom in Kolkata, which is around Rs85,000 more than the manual variant.
While M&M refused to give out sales targets for this new vehicle, it said that the the eastern region was fastest growing in terms of Scorpio sales.
While the utility vehicle market grew by 11 per cent nationally, M&M recorded a 36 per cent growth in the East last year, securing a 48 per cent market share in the region. Nationally, SUV sales grew by 23 per cent.
It sold 40,000 units nationally last fiscal and 1,500 units in West Bengal.
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It has sold 15,300 Scorpios all over India between April to August this year.
The Scorpio Automatic is initially launched for the domestic market, and will be exported later.