M&M bets on diesel - Calcutta Telegraph

Ravindra S. Shahane in Calcutta on Thursday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury Calcutta, June 6: Utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra has no immediate plan to offer a petrol variant of its compact car Verito Vibe even as the price gap between petrol and diesel has narrowed over the last one year. While the new Vibe will be pitted against Maruti's Swift and Toyota's Etios models that are available in both the fuel variants, M&M expects the difference between petrol and diesel prices to persist in the near term, which should ramp up the sales of its Verito. "The fuel price gap is at Rs 15-17, depending on the market. We think that it could persist at this level. We have sold about 15,000 units of the Verito sedan and majority of the sales are in the diesel option," Ravindra S. Shahane, senior general manager (marketing), said. Shahane was in Calcutta to unveil the Vibe today. Shahane said M&M would stick to the Verito platform for its passenger cars. To foray into the passenger car segment, the company had entered into an agreement with Renault of France in 2005 to manufacture the Logan sedan. After buying out Renault's stake in 2011, the company launched the Verito sedan on the Logan platform. Market observers, however, feel the firm faces the challenges of under-utilised capacity and inability to fully exploit the Verito platform. M&M is manufacturing the Verito series at its Nashik plant having a capacity of 3,000 units per month. However, sales volume of 2012-13 suggests the firm is utilising less than half of its capacity. Despite obtaining the marketing rights of the Verito, the company still sources the engines from Renault. Moreover, it can't export the vehicle under a pact between the two firms. via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHVstYMO04jJVCOHEx5LTibTfGLDg&url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130607/jsp/business/story_16981045.jsp

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