Mahindra & Mahindra's Farm Equipment Sector today launched five tractor models under the Yuvo brand, with price starting at Rs 4.99 lakh (ex-showroom Hyderabad).
The new tractors, which will be available in 15 states, are in the 30-45 HP (horsepower) range, thus adding to the company's existing range of 15-57 HP tractors.
Built on a new platform, Mahindra YUVO is extremely versatile and can be used across more than 30 different farming applications, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) said in a regulatory filing.
"M&M has invested over Rs 300 crore towards the development of this new platform," it added.
The company said it will sell the tractors through more than 400 outlets in 15 states across the country.
"The Yuvo will cater to the evolving needs of the progressive farmer. The range is developed at our state of the art R&D facility, Mahindra Research Valley at Chennai and has set a new benchmark in pioneering new technology and providing huge value to customers," said Pawan Goenka, Executive Director of M&M.
As the availability of drivers becomes difficult and more
expensive, people would like to have an autonomous or driver less vehicle, he added.
Predicting partnerships between companies, Goenka said: "When it comes to competitive scenario, clearly India has a unique situation where almost 88 per cent of the volumes is top three players and there are 15 players taking the rest of the volume, which would mean that these 15 players are not making money."
He further said: "How long can they continue? One doesn't know. So, there will have to be some kind of alliance. Consolidation that's happening globally will have to happen in India and the industry therefore will again change the dynamics."
Goenka, however, neither denied nor confirmed speculations on a link-up between the company and Ford saying at any point of time a company is talking to multiple counterparts for either sharing of platform, production capacity or technology collaboration.
Sharing the company's strategy for the road ahead, he said: "What Mahindra wants to do in this is obviously to increase volume, market share, increase profit and revenue."
However, he said: "We also want to think ourselves as a responsible company where objective is just not what happens to Mahindra but also what happens to India. In that what we can do for sustainable mobility is very important to us."
Regarding this, he said M&M started focusing on electric vehicles five years ago but hasn't met with much success in India so far.
"But we are the only player who has invested in electric vehicles in India and hopefully we are going to see some traction happening in years to come," Goenka said.
He further said: "It is really our dream that India becomes big in electric vehicle usage. If it's Mahindra vehicle nothing like it but even if it is not Mahindra we would love to see more and more Indians using electrical vehicles that are made in India and not imported."
Stressing that M&M is a great proponent of 'Make in India', he said, "we would like to see Indian manufacturing become global".
