Even as it continues to receive a heavy influx of fresh orders, Mahindra managed to clear a substantial backlog of bookings in the third quarter of Financial Year 2024 (November 2023-January 2024). From over 2.86 lakh open bookings at the end of October, Mahindra currently holds 2.26 lakh open bookings for its passenger vehicle lineup; the reduction amounting to roughly 60,000 orders. This has been made possible by an increase in vehicle production (now closing in on 49,000 units a month), which has also resulted in a drop in waiting periods for some in-demand models. While total monthly bookings for Mahindra remained flat, monthly deliveries rose to 40,000 units on average in the third quarter.
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The biggest backlog clearance has happened in the case of the Mahindra XUV700. From over 70,000 open orders, Mahindra now has just 35,000 bookings for the XUV700. Average waiting period for the XUV700 has now dropped to two to three months, Mahindra Auto Executive Director and CEO Rajesh Jejurikar revealed during a press briefing. Interestingly, the company is now receiving around 7,000 new bookings for the XUV700 every month, down from the 9,000 monthly bookings average in Q2.
Pending bookings for XUV700 dropped from 70,000 to 35,000 in Q3 FY24.
Two core models – the Scorpio and Thar – currently account for over 75 per cent of Mahindra’s open order book. Of these, it is the Scorpio family, including the Scorpio N and Scorpio Classic, that constitute about 45 per cent (over 1.01 lakh bookings, down from 1.20 lakh bookings in Q2), while the Thar accounts for over 31 per cent, with over 71,000 orders yet to be fulfilled.
The Scorpio duo continued to attract over 16,000 orders every month in Q3, but fresh bookings for the Thar slowed in the same period, dropping to 7,000 monthly bookings from 10,000 monthly bookings in Q2. Waiting periods for the Thar continue to be the highest (with the rear-wheel drive model still commanding a one-year waiting period), with the Scorpio N right behind it, at around eight to nine months.
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The Scorpio N continues to be the biggest sales draw in Mahindra's SUV portfolio.
The rest of the pending order book is accounted for by the Bolero family (over 10,000 opening bookings and 11,000 fresh bookings every month) and the XUV300 and XUV400 models (8,800 open bookings and 9,000 fresh bookings every month).
The company revealed that cancellations increased in the third quarter to 10 per cent, and attributed it to customers opting out of buying 2023-manufactured vehicles at the end of the year. The average cancellation rate has dropped to eight per cent in the first month of 2024, Mahindra noted in its presentation.
Mahindra is expected to increase annual production to well over 50,000 units in the coming financial year, as it gears up to launch the Thar 5-door later in 2024.
