M&M looks to drive into South East Asia market, ramp up in South Africa

“We have been selling the Scorpio pick-ups in several markets including mature markets like South Africa. The Veero will give us access to many newer markets, including Southeast Asia, where we don’t have a presence,” Veejay Nakra, president at Mahindra’s Automotive division, told ET. He said, however, that the company will firstly focus on the domestic market before venturing overseas in the next phase.

Priced at ₹7.99 lakh and positioned in the 2-3.5 tonne segment, the Veero is meant for intracity applications and is pitted against Tata Motors’ Intra and Ashok Leyland’s Dost models.

Mahindra has invested ₹900 crore in developing “the modular multi-energy platform” for the Veero, which it claims is India’s first.

Small pickups comprise about a third of the domestic total commercial vehicle (CV) market with Mahindra having a 40% share. In the large pickup segment, which makes up about 35% of the market, it leads with a dominant 80% share, Nakra claimed. “Every time we have launched a new model in the segment, it has led to a significant increase in market share,” said Nakra, citing an instance of the Bolero Maxx pick-up launched in 2023, which helped M&M gain a share of 8 percentage points.

The automaker is expecting a similar response with its latest launch. The maker of Bolero pick-up trucks and Supro vans plans to produce 120,000 units annually at a new assembly line set up for Veero at its facility in Pune, with initial monthly production expected at about 5,000 units.The UPP platform, designed to support diesel, CNG, and electric powertrains, represents a strategic move by Mahindra to capitalise on the growing demand for fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles. Mahindra’s latest offering is in a segment that has been stagnant for the last few years mainly due to weak rural demand. It sees that changing this year following a good monsoon and government thrust on rural spending.