Mahindra lines up ₹17,000 cr to steer growth over next three years

Mahindra & Mahindra is planning to deploy ₹17,000 crore over the next three years, including capex on new models and investments in group companies besides its auto and farm sector businesses, a top company official said on Friday.

The company plans to launch total 23 models in passenger vehicles segment and light commercial vehicles (LCV) category by 2026 and 37 models in the farm equipment vertical under its Project K2 by 2024-25.

Addressing reporters in a virtual earnings call conference, Mahindra Group Managing Director and CEO Anish Shah said out of the ₹17,000 crore planned to be deployed in the next three years, capital expenditure is at ₹12,000 crore.

It includes ₹6,000 crore for conventional automotive, ₹3,000 crore for electric vehicles (EVs) totalling ₹9,000 crore for the automotive sector. While for the farm equipment sector, capex is at ₹3,000 crore, he added.

"So a total capex of ₹12,000 crore (in three years). The remaining ₹5,000 crore is investments in group companies as well as the auto and farm sectors," Shah said.

Elaborating on the company's new products and platform strategy, M&M Executive Director (Auto & Farm Sectors) Rajesh Jejurikar said the company has been focussing on building a differentiated, sophisticated and authentic SUV brand with advanced adventure ready capabilities.

"This, we believe, is the foundation on which we plan to launch new products by 2026. We are planning to launch 9 new products by 2026 leveraging the platforms," he said.

Among these, a new Scorpio model is expected in 2021-22. The company's brand new XUV700 is set to be launched this calendar year, while a five-door Thar and all-new Bolero are set to hit the market between 2023-26.

Between 2024-27, the company has planned three new products, including SUVs code-named W620 and V201 along with an all-new version of its compact SUV XUV300, all of which will have electric powertrain options.

Jejurikar further said, the company plans to bring two 'born electric vehicles' in 2025-26 , which will be pure play EVs.

On the plans for LCVs, he said,"We also have a very strong strategy in the LCV, less than three and half tonne segments. We are the number one here. We are planning 14 new products to strengthen our position as the number one player here."

This will cut across last mile mobility range, small commercial range and new urban pick-up range and new products in the pick-up portfolio, he said.

"All of these projects, which are under works, are part of the capex outlay we are talking about," Jejurikar added.

For the farm equipment sector, he said products from M&M's light-weight tractor programme, the K2 series --developed through close collaboration between the engineering teams from Mitsubishi Mahindra Agricultural Machinery of Japan and Mahindra Research Valley in India -- "is expected to be launched in a three to four years timeline".

"We will start the first set of platforms with the first introduction in 2023 and the rest of the introduction will happen thereafter. These will be global platforms in four geographies and 37 models will come out," he added.

Jejurikar said going forward the investments per new launch is expected to come down quite significantly as the company will leverage on existing platforms.