An announcement regarding the booking of the cheetah-inspired sports utility vehicle, XUV500, was recently made by Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (M&M). The company announced that the booking will start from 8th June 2012. In its second phase of booking, this powerful SUV will now be available across the country, including the 19 cities where it has been already launched. The car was made available across the 19 cities in its second phase of bookings. It was received well by the customers and garnered an astonishing count of more than 25,000 bookings. Production capacity was increased to up to 4,000 vehicles to cater to the increasing demand. 7,200 lucky applicants out of these were selected through an automated XUV500 Draw.
At the time of announcing the country-wide opening of bookings, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, Pravin Shah, said, “It has been an incredible journey so far for the XUV500 and we are pleased to take the product national. We have been inundated with requests for re-opening of bookings not just from existing cities but also from cities where the XUV500 was not available. Now that we have ramped-up our production capacity significantly, we are confident that we will be able to take care of the growing all-India demand for the XUV500.”
Along with contemporary technology, safety features and luxurious interiors, this SUV boasts of cheetah-inspired styling, which is first of its kind. This makes the SUV perfect for sedan and SUV buyers. The popularity of the car is evident from the 22 awards received by it, which includes ‘Car of the Year’, ‘SUV of the year’ and ‘Viewers Choice Car of the Year’ at ET – Zigwheels Awards 2011. Leading auto magazine Top Gear also awarded it ‘SUV of the Year’, ‘Readers Choice Award’ and ‘Best Value for Money Car’ at Top Gear Magazine Awards 2011. At CNBC TV18–Overdrive Awards 2012, it received ‘SUV of the Year’ and ‘Viewers Choice Car of the Year’.
At Bloomberg UTV Autocar India Awards, the car received 'SUV of the Year’, ‘Best Value for Money Car of the Year’ and ‘Viewers Choice SUV of the Year’ awards. Adding to its series of achievement were ‘SUV of the Year Award 2011-2012’ from Top Gear Malayalam and two Golden Steering Wheel Awards 2012 from Auto Bild India.
For these, the SUV was voted by the viewers of Headlines Today and Aaj Tak in two categories viz. ‘SUV/UV 2011 Award’ and the ‘Viewer's Choice Award’. XUV500 was also recognised as ‘Car of the Year / SUV of the Year’ by famous auto blogs like TeamBHP, Vicky.in, Motor Vikatan, Auto Junction and Auto Beam.
In a Reputation Benchmark Study by Bluebytes, the car was tagged the Most Reputed Brand. Rallies like Desert storm, Desert Dash & Dakshin Dare have witnessed the car emerge victorious on difficult terrains. Amongst these, the Dakshin Dare victory was a significant one for the XUV500, as it attained fame of being the first diesel SUV to emerge victorious at an extreme category in Indian rallying history.
