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A month ago, Pablo was at an M&M conference where a name for its next SUV was being conferred. As the name was revealed, some let out a laugh, others were left bewildered. The rest got up to file their stories, while some others rushed out for high-tea. Pablo, in-turn headed to Bijoy, who happened to be at the conference and currently heads Mahindra's Adventure division for an explanation, of course. The name XUV500 (read as Five double Oh!) would make any man or woman worth his or her salt question the logic behind it.
A few days later, I went to the same media centre as M&M launched an updated version of the Bolero. Dr Pawan Goenka, President M&M was answering some questions and the name XUV500 came up again. Though, this time, the man who heads the Automotive division of M&M called it 'Five Hundred' and not the Five-Oh-Oh. Uh oh!
Call it a slip of the tongue or confused positioning, the XUV500's future was being determined by its name, or so we thought.
Cut to a few weeks later, the car was revealed to the media at a gala function in Pune just after the sun had set. The quality of the finish, the equipment levels, the design language left a lot of us stunned. Was the scepter of the name diminishing? We would know about it the following morning when the price would be revealed.
D-Day. A rather groggy set of eyes tried to focus hard on the aspects and prospects of Mahindra's next big hope. Rajesh Jejurikar, Chief Executive read out the prices and the voices dropped. The look on everyone was that of utter shock. Were they serious? How could they? Questions that needed to be answered after a test drive.
A few hours later we were pelting down the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, headed back home in a brand spanking new, 500 kilometers young, silver XUV500 2WD from Chakan, the vehicle's birthplace. The speedo kept climbing, the car turned in neatly, it braked just the way a crossover/monocoque SUV should and it felt on the whole more-or-less in the ballpark. The car was impressing us, and what left us more impressed was how it achieved all of this at such a competitive price tag, while boasting of features that are found on cars three times the price.
But the truth lay in another pudding. As I drove it in and around Mumbai for the next three days, I saw interest in the XUV reach fever pitch. Scorpio and Xylo owners would turn around, ask questions, as if they viewed it as their natural upgrade. It elicited responses even from Innova owners (strangely). But that's not all. The common man walking on the street, riding a motorcycle or just generally going about his or her business stopped dead in their tracks as it emerged in the line of sight. An Alto owner screeched to a halt, walked out of the car, gazed and knocked around as a traffic piled up right behind his car. He was completely oblivious to all that was around him, his focus lay firmly on the new Mahindra.
Another gentleman who was out on a test-drive of a rival SUV parked his car right next to our test example, then sampled it after he asked for my permission and came back beaming - the salesperson in his SUV left in a bit of a huff I guess, even though he tried to hide it well. A group of kids from the Transportation Cell of the IIT Design School in Mumbai happened to pass by, then studied the design and shared their impressions. An elderly couple stepped in to our conversation and asked for more on it. Everyone whom I spoke to seemed to know what it was, even asked questions about the features, how it feels to drive and then some more.
As I write this, I've learnt that M&M, who have launched the vehicle in just the five cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune in Phase I have raked in a staggering 8,500 bookings in the first day alone. That's four months worth of production, dear ladies and gentlemen!
What's, therefore in a name?
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