Mahindra unveils World of SUVs dealership model

Mahindra has officially revealed its new showroom-within-showroom dealership format. Mahindra’s World of SUVs is meant to be a next-generation dealership format that is supposed to enhance the customer's buying experience. The brand has already set up over 300 World of SUVs outlets across the country and will retail its more premium models – like the Alturas G4 and XUV500 – from these areas. We had reported this development back in August last year.

Along with a hexagonal ceiling layout and a new interior design that is meant to represent the Mahindra DNA, the World of SUVs area of a Mahindra dealership will come with Wi-Fi connected customer lounges, a display area with a virtual reality experience, 86-inch screens to display various features, trained relationship managers for a personalised experience and a merchandise and accessories zone.

The Indian brand’s new showroom areas have been set up with a minimum investment from dealerships, as the distal content and technology has been provided by Mahindra. The dealer has to only buy the hardware. Mahindra claims that each dealer has spent about Rs 50-70 lakh on the infrastructure and technology to upgrade to the World of SUVs format, which is far less than what is required to set up a completely new outlet.

While Mahindra has said that it would expand from the current 300 showrooms, it has confirmed that the format will not spread to Tier III and Tier IV cities. However, they do aim to have a touchpoint in a 25km radius of all major cities.

Mahindra has also confirmed that while it plans to enhance customer experience through the World of SUVs dealership format, this will not affect aftersales costs.

The brand recently launched a special-edition Thar, the Thar 700, as the last hurrah for its current-gen off-roader, and will soon bring a diesel-AMT variant of the Mahindra XUV300 compact SUV to the market.