Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) on Thursday launched the SsangYong Rexton, a high-end luxury sports utility vehicle (SUV) in the Gujarat market, as a part of its phase-wise launch of the product. The company has already delivered over 400 Rextons since November.
Ashish Malik, vice president, SUVs, Reva and Market Research, marketing of M&M said that the high end SUV segment has doubled in the last two years and currently stands at around 30,000 units per annum. The space is dominated by the Toyota Fortuner which enjoys a 50-55 per cent market share.
The Rexton is getting manufactured at the company's Chakan plant, which has an annual capacity of 5000 units of the vehicle per annum working in single shift. The company has recently increased the capacity to 500 units per month as the Rexton currently has a wait-period of four to six weeks.
Malik said that the rate of penetration of SUVs in India is still low at 21 per cent compared to 75 per cent in Indonesia and 44 per cent in the US and 50-55 per cent in the UAE and Qatar.
Mahindra has recently ramped up capacities of the XUV500 and the Quanto at Chakan to 5000 units per month and 3500 units per month respectively.
