Hindustan Motors who have a Joint Venture (JV) partnership with Mitsubishi Motors announced a massive cut of Rs. 1.87 lacs in the price of Pajero Sport vehicle in the Indian market on October 19, 2012, starting immediately. The cut comes as the company has started the local production of the Pajero Sport that was previously marketed via the expensive Completely Built Unit (CBU) route.
The Mitsubishi Pajero Sport is a premium Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) and used to carry a price tag of Rs. 24.43 lacs (ex-showroom prices of New Delhi). With the surprising price cut, the Indian enthusiasts now have to shell out a sum of just Rs. 22.56 lacs, in order to get behind the wheels of Pajero Sport. The Mitsubishi SUV was deemed too pricey for the Indian taste but the latest development could help the Japanese multinational auto maker for striking the perfect chords with the domestic audience.
Expressing his views on the cutback in Pajero Sport's pricing, Uttam Bose, Managing Director (MD), Hindustan Motors Limited (HML) said, “We are pleased to announce our start of production of the Pajero Sport in our Tiruvallur plant and are happy to extend the price benefit to our customers. India has in the recent past seen an increased desire for SUV’s; Pajero Sport will further consolidate its position in the Indian market. Pajero Sport will look at capturing 20% of the premium SUV segment in the country. With Pajero Sport being locally manufactured, the production numbers is set to increase to over 400 units and also the plant has capacity to scale up operations based on market requirements. The manufacturing quality of Pajero Sport CKD (Completely Knocked Down) is as great as the CBU quality and the dealers are also happy with the end result.”
The Pajero Sport's new price tag is going to stiffen up the premium SUV segment of the country, which at present involves Toyota Fortuner, Ford Endeavour, Hyundai Santa Fe and the recently launched SsangYong Rexton for the market leadership. Currently, Fortuner is the champion of premium SUV segment of the Indian passenger car market and is closely followed by the American muscle Endeavour.
The Toyota Fortuner comes in a price range around Rs. 21.2 lacs to Rs. 22.7 lacs, while the Ford Endeavour fetches a price tag between Rs. 18 lacs and Rs. 21.3 lacs. Thus, latest cut in the retail value of Mitsubishi Pajero Sport puts the premium SUV in a direct face off against its contemporaries. However, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) Limited offers the freshly introduced SsangYong Rexton in two variants – RX5 and RX7, both of which are priced lower than the Pajero Sport, at Rs. 17.67 lacs and Rs. 19.67 lacs, respectively.
The Pajero Sport is an excellent product, besides offering best-in-class power and performance as compared to its direct counterparts. The premium SUV comes fitted with a 2.5 litre, turbocharged DOHC common rail DI-D (Direct Injection) powertrain that churns out a peak power-torque equation of 175.56 bhp and 400 Nm, respectively.
Mitsubishi Pajero Sport beats all its rivals in terms of power, except the SsangYong Rexton RX7 that boasts off a whopping power-torque delivery of 184 bhp and 402 Nm, in the order of mention. It is going to be interesting to see how the price cut reciprocates towards the sales of Pajero Sport but one thing is for sure that the move will be regarded as an ominous one by Mitsubishi's competitors.
