New Mahindra Thar Booked All The Way Till May 2021 Production Ramped Up

The new Thar has been all the rage ever since its launch on October 2. The second-generation of the SUV has garnered loads of interest, leading to a number of milestones in terms of bookings made for the latest iteration of the icon. This has led to a waiting period of at least seven months, with bookings made all the way till May 2021.

Within five days of its launch, the Thar already had 9,000 bookings registered, with the total crossing 20,000 in just under a month. Needless to say, the new Thar is more popular thanks to its increased practicality and added features and comfort. Such is the appeal that bookings for its base AX trim -- petrol-only AX std and AX -- have already been put on hold this month. There is word that they once bookings resume.

In its bid to increase the appeal of the Thar, Mahindra revamped what was originally a barebones off-roading SUV. The new Thar comes with factory-fitted roof options, variety of colour options, a turbo-petrol engine, an automatic transmission option, just to name a few firsts for the SUV. The appeal for the Thar is all set to increase even more with its latest Global NCAP crash test results, in which it scored four stars out of five in both adult and child occupant protection.

Dr. Pawan Goenka, MD, Mahindra and Mahindra, had this to say, "On one hand, one can say that's a nice problem to have waiting than not to have cars waiting for customers. But I don't think any OEM wants to have a very long waiting list. But, at the same time, we do have constraints on how much we can increase our capacity. We have already commissioned 50 per cent more capacity than what we originally planned. And, I think starting the month of January, we'll get to that point. Right now, with a demand which is far exceeding what we thought we will be getting for this vehicle, we are I think are booked solid till May. And, I don't see May becoming January. It may become April, but I don't see it becoming January. So, unfortunately, the customers will have to wait for the vehicle, though we are trying to increase capacity as much as we can. But, there's a limit to how much it can go up."

The second-gen Mahindra Thar retails from Rs 9.80 lakh to Rs 13.75 lakh (ex-showroom). It will see competition from the upcoming .