The rise in its fortune due to higher than expected sales in the last year has made many automakers nervous with the prospective fall of demand that the industry witnesses after the peak. All the major auto manufacturers are trying to keep 
the momentum, gained in the last year, going. When all this is happening around one can’t expect Mahindra and Mahindra to be quiet for long. Riding on its great performance in the previous fiscal, the Indian auto major is determined not to lose steam in the New Year. M&M has in a public statement announced its intention to launch a total of 8-10 new models in this year which will include a premium SUV. Mr. Pawan Goenka, President- Auto and Farm Sectors at M&M was quoted as saying that the new year will witness a range of products being launched by the company across commercial and passenger vehicle segments. The company has already started the process of these new offerings by the launch of Genio, the pick up vehicle. Mr. Pawan added, that there will be, substantially new, at least 8-10 products which will include refreshes and variants.
But what is expected to hog all the limelight is the proposed launch of a new premium SUV, which is said to be positioned above the best-selling “Scorpio”. Mr.Goenka further divulged that the launch of the new SUV will bring in a fresh platform in the market and is expected to be launched in the penultimate quarter of this year.
The company is said to have invested a huge sum to the tune of 6oo crores in its quest to build a new platform. He went on to say that there would be a range on new products and also variants from the ‘Ingenio’ and the ‘Maxximo’’ platforms besides new tippers and trucks from its joint venture with Navistar. For the period between April and January, in the current fiscal, Mahindra and Mahindra has registered a growth of 26.22 percent in the domestic market alone with a sales figure of 2,90,566 which is a decent rise from the previous years sales figures for the same period which was 2,30,189.
On a specific question pertaining to future prospects in sales, Mr. Goenka was not optimistic and said that the current growth is unsustainable. As the automobile industry has been witnessing a growth rate of 30 percent, the forecasted growth was pegged at 15-18 percent for the next fiscal year. Mr. Goenka, who also is the president of SIAM, warned that in the event, if the commodity prices and the rate of interest changes adversely, it will severely disrupt the growth rate of the industry. He also had a word of caution for the tractor segments demand, which has seen a rise of 20 percent, to come down and stabilize at 10-12 percent for the next fiscal year.
