Date:08/01/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/01/08/stories/2004010801781700.htm

Back M&M targets TN tour operators with Bolero variants

Our Bureau

Chennai , Jan. 7

MAHINDRA & Mahindra on Wednesday launched two variants of the Bolero utility vehicle in Tamil Nadu. The company sees good scope for the variants — the XL and the XLS — in the contract carriage or the tour operator segment as they have more seats than the other Bolero models, according to company officials.

It hopes to sell about 12,000 units of the two variants in a full year in the country.

It will come out with a separate television commercial highlighting the seating capacity and the value-for-money proposition for tour operators, Mr Nalin Mehta, General Manager (Marketing), M&M, told a press conference here.

The Bolero XL costs Rs 4.74 lakh ex-showroom in Chennai and the Bolero XLS Rs 4.91 lakh. The variants are available with seven, nine or 10 seats.

Mr Malay Saha, Deputy General Manager (Automotive Sector), M&M, said the company hoped to sell 600 Boleros in Tamil Nadu in 2003-04, against the 300 it sold last year. The company's market share in the utility vehicle segment had increased from 25 per cent to 44 per cent in the State, and in the first nine months of this financial year it had gone up to 51 per cent.

Tamil Nadu had a large number of tourists visiting temples and the Bolero XL and XLS would be attractive for tourist taxi operators.

The utility vehicle segment in the contract carriage market in Tamil Nadu is estimated at 1,800 units a year and M&M hoped to get 30 per cent of that. Besides, it would aim for a 20 per cent share of the car market among tourist taxi operators, he said.