[TusharK]

Mahindra has a massive order backlog of over 2.81 lakh units for its range of SUVs. This has led to longer waiting periods.



According to the company, the Scorpio-N and Scorpio Classic have the most orders. Together, both models account for over 1.17 lakh bookings.

Currently, Mahindra has over 77,000 pending orders for the XUV700, with the waiting period for top variants being almost a year. As per the company, around 8,000 cars are booked every month.

Mahindra receives over 10,000 bookings for the Thar every month. This has resulted in an order backlog of over 68,000 units. The waiting period for the Thar RWD is around 15 months, while the 4x4 variants have an average waiting period of 5 months.

The order backlog for the XUV300 and XUV400 is 11,000 units, while the Bolero and Bolero Neo models have around 8,400 open bookings.

Mahindra has been operating its assembly lines at nearly full capacity. The carmaker delivered over 1 lakh SUVs between April and July 2023. It plans to expand its production capacity to 49,000 units per month by Q4 FY2024.

Mahindra receives about 48,000 new bookings, with 33,000 billings every month. Less than 8% of the orders are cancelled every month.

Source: HT Auto

Link to Team-BHP News

[GTO]

Both our homegrown car manufacturers are on a roll . Tata is surely going to touch the 50,000 cars / month mark soon, while Mahindra slowly moved up from 30,000 cars / month to 35,000....and then to over 40,000 / month in September & October.

What's more, unlike Maruti, the average selling price of Mahindras & Tatas is very high. Thanks to their 15 - 30 lakh products. They have designed & tasted success with some stunning SUVs & Crossovers.

The R&D departments of both these companies blow Maruti-Suzuki away. Heck, Maruti is still peddling 1.5L NA petrols & 4-speed torque converters that date back to the 1990s. The 2023 Hyundai Verna makes the 2023 Ciaz look like a vintage car.

Lest we forget, it is these two who are also churning out "SAFE" cars.

Tata & Mahindra's message to Maruti = you please continue selling cheap hatchbacks & other 10-lakh rupee cars. Leave the premium SUVs to us. Suzuki globally too doesn't have big, successful SUVs, and I don't think Maruti has the capability to develop a fine one. Their only hope is Toyota.

[FAIAAA]

Thanks for sharing Tushark and well articulated by GTO.
Our Indian manufacturers have indeed come a long way. Who would have thought 10-15 years back that these two will lead with premium SUV offerings with good designs and robust mechanicals.What needs improvement to make them complete packages are consistent product quality and ASS and niggle free ownership experience.

[Turbolove]

Its really great to see Mahindra enjoying such good demand in the market. Their products are really good. I've enjoyed my Thar alot. I just hope they keep improving their quality and ASS experience at the same pace as they introduce new cars and tech.

[northstar*]

I just noticed that XUV700 dispatches for October was 9.2k. I think it is the first time XUV700 is touching the 9k mark.

Have they ramped up the production for accommodating the higher demand or are they clearing the backlog to pave way for the updated model ?

[Sk8r]

Whilst the numbers look all good, if the backlog is due to capacity constraints being one of the reasons, isn't Mahindra to be at fault here?

While investors would be really pleased to some extent, they would also question Mahindra's forecasting accuracy considering that they already had this backlog since a couple of years for now.

Can't imagine the backlog when Thar 5 door, refreshed Xuv 5oo hits the market. Not to mention the ScorpioN Pik-up !

[sgmuser]

I personally do not read too much into these Autocar (only Autocar publishes these regularly first) spread news articles. It is simply a marketing strategy IMHO. What is the use of this piece of news bit? Think twice. This is a kind of psychological marketing (or what is the best way to describe) to slowly put these image that these are most wanted in the markets. FYI, I do drive a Thar and I do not have much against Mahindra per se. But I am annoyed with Mahindra's marketing team doing these silly things with media's connivance. I would rather focus on After Sales which is poor (the products deserve better AfSS) and QC is abysmal. If Thar has a backlog of so and so, how come I got delivered a D AT in a week's time? I was promised any color of my choice will be delivered in a week or max two week's time. These numbers are more to do the poor manufacturing capacity planning rather than achievements. Mahindra need to be more professional in their approach and leave all these silly promotions and focus on the core - Products - Service - Quality. But some how their marketing department is working overtime. As a repeated Mahindra customer, I do not like these stunts at all.

m2c.

[astro-wolf]

I just bought an XUV700 this September. I asked in three different states about delivery timeline. Maximum waiting period I got was 4-5 months and minimum was 1.5 months. Everyone told me that Mahindra still states 8 months for top models waiting, but we are getting cars faster. They even recieve free float cars apart from the ones that are booked.

Although in the end I received the car within a week of booking, because somebody else walked out on petrol and went diesel way. And I still get calls from other showrooms that have my data about the vehicle enquiry and early delivery etc.

All of this makes it difficult for me to believe whatever is in the news. I might be wrong here, but I think calling your local showroom will give you the best estimates of delivery timeline.

[Ad_J]

I agree with the fellow BHPian @sgmuse. The 'waiting period' is a buzz word these days in the Indian passenger vehicle industry. Automobile manufacturers are using this as a marketing tool but in a very subtle way, especially Mahindra.

This year, my uncle was bit by the Thar bug. So we went ahead and booked the Thar LX (D) Soft Top variant. Since I was under the impression of insanely long waiting periods for the Thar we decided to make a booking each at 3 different dealers. Two of the dealers told us that they will arrange the car within 4-6 weeks. The third one promised waiting of not more than 2 months.
However, almost after 2 weeks he changed his mind to Scorpio-N Z4 4WD and cancelled the bookings of the Thar. Scorpio N was booked on the day of Rakshabandhan i.e. 30th August 2023 and my uncle took the delivery of the vehicle on the first day of Navratri. i.e. 15 October 2023.

So in my experience, the waiting periods are more or less of a marketing tactic or a fad. Now, I am only implying that some car companies might be exaggerating the waiting periods or it might be the case that Mahindra is prioritising delivers not on the bases of first come first served but trying to distribute it evenly throughout the country.

Nonetheless, it's my opinion based on my experiences. I would love to be enlightened by other TeamBHP members.

[Cresterk]

Originally Posted by sgmuser

I personally do not read too much into these Autocar (only Autocar publishes these regularly first) spread news articles. It is simply a marketing strategy IMHO. What is the use of this piece of news bit? Think twice. This is a kind of psychological marketing (or what is the best way to describe) to slowly put these image that these are most wanted in the markets. FYI, I do drive a Thar and I do not have much against Mahindra per se. But I am annoyed with Mahindra's marketing team doing these silly things with media's connivance. I would rather focus on After Sales which is poor (the products deserve better AfSS) and QC is abysmal. If Thar has a backlog of so and so, how come I got delivered a D AT in a week's time? I was promised any color of my choice will be delivered in a week or max two week's time. These numbers are more to do the poor manufacturing capacity planning rather than achievements. Mahindra need to be more professional in their approach and leave all these silly promotions and focus on the core - Products - Service - Quality. But some how their marketing department is working overtime. As a repeated Mahindra customer, I do not like these stunts at all.

m2c.

You hit the nail on the head. There are dozens of Thars sitting around unsold and being offered with discounts at major dealerships here. The shortage might have been true during 2020-2021 but the whole thing has completely turned around now and the shortage myth is just being repeated as a marketing stunt. Same is true for other manufacturers as well.

[Kosfactor]

A simple google search shows that they have huge order backlog since a long time, now we also know that cancellations are minimal.



This news is listed in their regulatory filing, accessible to the public.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by Cresterk

There are dozens of Thars sitting around unsold and being offered with discounts at major dealerships here. The shortage might have been true during 2020-2021 but the whole thing has completely turned around now and the shortage myth is just being repeated as a marketing stunt. Same is true for other manufacturers as well.

Originally Posted by astro-wolf

All of this makes it difficult for me to believe whatever is in the news. I might be wrong here, but I think calling your local showroom will give you the best estimates of delivery timeline.

Well, I just happened to call a M&M dealer here in Goa and she mentioned that both, the Thar D & P AT's have a wait time of 5-6 months. This is far cry from the situation about 2-3 months back, when they were 'almost' readily available. Idk what has changed in these 3 months to shoot up the wait times by more than double.

Moreover, the booking amount has a cancellation fee too, which is unheard of in today's times.

[sgmuser]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

Well, I just happened to call a M&M dealer here in Goa and she mentioned that both, the Thar D & P AT's have a wait time of 5-6 months. This is far cry from the situation about 2-3 months back, when they were 'almost' readily available. Idk what has changed in these 3 months to shoot up the wait times by more than double.

Moreover, the booking amount has a cancellation fee too, which is unheard of in today's times.

The delay could be region based or the allocation due to diwali and other festive sales. Nothing much.

There have been a cancellation (for Thar atleast) fee all the while and I too got deducted that fee when I booked Thar in 2021/2022 and cancelled.

[MotoChild]

We booked 2 Thars RWD.
One was Petrol AT (Booked somewhere in March 2023) & the other was Diesel Manual (booked on 02/02/2023)

Both were booked in different dealerships. The Petrol AT was delivered within 4 weeks, but the Diesel has been stuck since.

The auto.mahindra.com portal shows no movement at all on the Diesel booking. Not even a chassis number/model number assigned on the booking. No tentative dates updated. It's pathetic.

The dealership, although reverts occasionally with updates regarding the delivery period. The latest being Feb-March 2024.(Exactly 12 Months)
But even these dates are not fixed.

Could this be due to this overbooking? We did suspect something fishy here but are not sure about the delay. Does anyone know how to go about this issue?

[mohitm29]

Circulate the news of high waiting periods and give dealerships chance to mint money by forcing customers to buy accessorized (unsold) stocks of vehicles. Agreed that both M&M and TATA are producing many desirable and aspirational SUVs, stories about their quality issues and after sale services are not confidence inspiring. After giving tough fight to Korean manufacturers, both home grown manufacturers must learn from Japanese manufacturers with regards to quality, pre-sales & after sale services.