Mahindra launches compact car Verito Vibe at Rs 5.63 lakh - Moneycontrol.com

Nachiket Kelkar moneycontrol.com Utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra on Wednesday made its foray into the compact car segment with the Verito Vibe. The car, which is based on its Verito sedan platform, and will compete with the likes of Maruti Suzuki Swift and DZire and Honda Amaze, is available at a starting price of Rs 5.63 lakh, ex-showroom Mumbai. The fully loaded D6 model will be available at an ex-showroom price of Rs 6.49 lakh. M&M and French car maker Renault called-off their joint venture to make the entry-level sedan Logan in 2010. The Logan was then relaunched as the Verito in 2011 and a refreshed version of the car was rolled last year. With the launch of the Verito, the company is getting into the highly competitive and high volume compact car segment (market size of around 8 lakh cars per year). M&M has been a highly successful utility vehicle maker. However, selling cars is a whole different ball game. Pawan Goenka, president automotive and farm equipment sector, says the company is currently selling around 700-800 units of the Verito and would like to sell at least twice the number of Vibes. However, he is clear that the company won't shed its image of making tough and rugged sports utility vehicles like the Bolero, Scorpio and XUV500. So essentially, the Verito and the Vibe, apart from the electric vehicle E20 will be the only cars that it will have in the market. Only other car that is being planned is the electric version of the Verito that will hit the market in FY15. "The Verito platform comes from the Renault and we have certain agreements with them. In that context we will have probably one more launch on the Verito platform next year. But other then that the platform is going to be limited to what we have shown the sedan and the Vibe today. I have always said that other than Verito, we have no specific plans to get into passenger car segment and that I still stand by," Goenka said during the launch of the Vibe in Mumbai. He said there will be more products in the future that will compete for volumes, but not essentially passenger cars. Also Read: Just Dial closes 15% higher on debut The Verito Vibe is only being sold with a 1.5 litre diesel engine, and although the price differential between petrol and diesel has come down in recent months, company officials are confident that the Verito Vibe will get a good response. The Vibe is a wide bodied compact car offering comfortable seating space for three adults in the rear seat and also has a large boot capacity of 330 litres, M&M said. The company also claims fuel efficiency of 20.8 km per litre for the Vibe. It has spent around Rs 60 crore in developing the Vibe.  M&M is launching the Verito at a time passenger car sales remain in the slow lane. The Swift DZire is the top selling car in this segment, but even this highly successful car has hit speed bumps. DZire sales in May fell 2.5 percent to 17,265 units. Honda, another new entrant in the segment, sold a little over 6,000 units of the Amaze last month. Given these strong brands, will customers drive the Verito Vibe. M&M officials fell it will get a good response, helped by a large boot, comfortable rear seating, and a proven Renault engine, among several other factors. M&M closed down 0.1 percent at Rs 986.55 on NSE on Wednesday. via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHOirUAVx4nn_9joTtNTSqa6owRKg&url=http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/mahindra-launches-compact-car-verito-vibe-at-rs-563-lakh_891339.html

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