'The Shark' Mahindra Marazzo to battle Toyota Innova Crysta, Maruti Suzuki Ertiga for supremacy

Putting together synergies of its global subsidiaries, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Monday introduced Mahindra Marazzo priced at a starting Rs 9.99 lakh. Mahindra Marazzo is a multi-utility vehicle (MUV) targeted at large families and businesspersons. Marazzo will compete with Toyota Innova Crysta and Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, two successful vehicles in the segment that has otherwise seen more misses than hits, say analysts. Marazzo means shark. It is derived from Basque language.

While Ertiga and Crysta clock in excess of 4,000 and 6,500 units a month, respectively, Datsun GO plus sells barely 350 units and Renault Lodgy has been able to reach 100 units a month.

With this launch, the maker of hugely successful Scorpio wants to hold on to its market share in the UV segment, which has dwindled in the past couple of years. Though the senior executives at M&M did not specify the targeted sales for Marazzo, they claim that Marazzo together with a future sports utility vehicle (SUV) launch codenamed S201 will be able to sell around 9,000-9,500 units per month. The launch of S201 is expected early next year.

Also, the company is confident that Marazzo will not cannibalise any of M&M’s existing products, as the targeted customers this time are different.

Anand Mahindra, executive chairman, M&M, said that launch is a definitive moment for the company as it enters a new orbit. Talking to DNA Money, Mahindra said that Marazzo has been a huge leap of faith for his company in terms of successful efforts in global collaboration.

On M&M losing market share in UVs, Mahindra said that the definition of SUV keeps changing with each passing day as some car makers just by making a few small changes here and there tend to place such products as SUVs. Also, the overall market size is increasing, he added.

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According to the M&M executives, Marazzo took around four years in the making and was developed at a cost of around $20 million.

Engineering collaboration was between Mahindra Automotive North America and Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai. The design was done via collaboration between M&M’s in-house team and its Italy-based subsidiary Pininfarina. Going forward, the company will continue to generate more products from such collaborations, the executives added.

Source: DNA Money