Sales growth prompts Mahindra events expansion
BY HAITHAM RAZAGUI | 30th Apr 2024
MAHINDRA Adventure, the Indian car-maker’s customer event program focused on off-road experiences and driver training, is about to expand its calendar and diversify the scope of activities offered as the brand’s Australian sales start to take off.
A global initiative that has been running for 13 years on the Indian subcontinent and has also rolled out in some Latin American and African markets, Mahindra Adventure’s first Australian event was a tour of K’Gari (Fraser Island) in 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic stifled follow-up events but Mahindra has managed to run trips within range of its Australian headquarters in Brisbane, including Glasshouse Mountains, Mulgumpin (Moreton Island) and a second visit to K’Gari.
With an expanded line-up including the Scorpio off-road wagon and XUV700 medium SUV joining the rugged Pik-Up ute last year, Mahindra sales in Australia have taken off – GoAuto understands automotive volume has tripled – and the brand is now lining up events in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia.
The brand is also supporting Australian dealers to run their own one-day events under the Mahindra Adventure banner for their local customers – the first of which recently took place in Townsville – while the longer-form trips remain organised centrally.
Given Mahindra’s brand recognition is in the region of just 30 per cent among Australians, Mahindra Automotive Australia marketing manager James Halliwell told GoAuto the Mahindra Adventure program serves in part to gather like-minded people who have taken a punt on a vehicle from the Indian manufacturer.
“They get to learn about their car, they get to do it in a safe environment where everyone’s in the same situation in that they’ve all got a Mahindra and they’re all learning about that vehicle,” he explained during a recent Mahindra Adventure experience on Mulgumpin.
Each event is led by professional driver and instructor Gene Corbett, who with co-driver Ben Robinson piloted a Mahindra Scorpio into the Guinness World Record books for the fastest crossing of the Simpson Desert by a production vehicle last year, taking just 13 hours, 21 minutes and 5 seconds.
Mahindra Adventure outsources much of the logistics and planning for its Australian events to Mr Corbett’s business Total Driver, which also handles customer bookings and correspondence after Mahindra collects expressions of interest through its email database, social media, and website.
Each trip has the capacity for up to 20 Mahindra vehicles and up to four occupants per vehicle. Unlike some factory-backed schemes such as Isuzu Ute Australia’s I-Venture Club, children are allowed to join the event with their parents or carers.
Participation attracts a fee depending on the nature and duration of the trip although Mr Halliwell confirmed that Mahindra Australia subsidises each event to make them more accessible.
“In the longer term, word of mouth is the best form of advertising – we all see how pumped our customers are coming away from each event – so that’s the marketing side of it but the genuine side of it is that people just have fun and have a great time so if it costs (Mahindra) a little bit of money, I don’t think anyone’s too concerned about that”.
With the XUV700 proving popular since last year’s launch, Mahindra’s first event in WA will be available to owners of two-wheel drive vehicles, including the older XUV500 model and 4x2 Mahindra utes, with a trip to The Pinnacles Desert around 180km north of Perth.
Mr Halliwell said the company “now has an extremely large customer base, particularly in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, and now Sydney as well”.
“We’re trying to have a full calendar of events each year that encompasses as many states as we can,” he added.
Following the WA event in June, the Victorian trip will head to an off-road location along the Yarra Valley’s Black Spur and Hawks Nest just north of Newcastle will serve as the destination for those participating in the NSW tour.
Mr Halliwell said planning for a South Australian event is underway and is hoped to take place this year. He also confirmed that the plan is to run a Mahindra Adventure every year for each state and territory where the brand has sufficient market penetration.
“It’s based on customer base; we get asked all the time now, particularly from (customers in) some of those other locations,” said Mr Halliwell, who confirmed that Mahindra is planning on submitting sales figures to industry statistician VFACTS soon and aiming to become “a household name” in Australia by 2030 with around 70 per cent brand recognition.
“That translates to sales because when you're at 70 per cent of awareness, you're obviously going to be on the shopping list,” he said.
Mr Corbett told GoAuto that key to designing the events for groups who tended to vary in terms of experience levels, as well factoring in potentially unpredictable weather conditions, was all about balance.
“You want it to be fun and not too intimidating for people but challenging enough so they come away inspired,” explained Mr Corbett, who said beach and sand island locations were often easier to manage from this perspective.
“When you go in the bush, for instance, it can turn pretty nasty pretty quickly so if you’ve got a group of people where that’s their first time it could alienate them from both the (off-road) lifestyle and also the (Mahindra) brand.”
Mr Halliwell added that some customers were using Mahindra Adventure to expand their off-roading repertoire, citing the experience of one participant who had been to K’gari many times but never Mulgumpin.
“Another gentleman there (Mulgumpin) has done a lot of off-roading and four-wheel driving but never driven on the beach or on sand,” he said.
“And then a couple from Melbourne that had never been off-road to any extent and never really been on the sand at all.
“You get different levels of experience on these events, and they come away with a lot a lot of tools out of it, how to do things right and safer and better.”
Mr Halliwell said a pleasing outcome of the Mahindra Adventure program was the participation of women.
“A really cool thing was seeing lots of ladies on these events,” he enthused.
“There are a lot more female four-wheel drivers these days than many of us realise and they, just like everybody else, want to learn how to use a car when taking it into tougher terrain, to feel comfortable and safe and know how to recover and use four-wheel drive properly.
“They also get to meet a lot of great people that are absolutely happy with their cars, having a lot of fun with them.
“One of the comments on that (Mulgumpin) trip was that they met lifelong friends on this event so that you can't really get a better testimonial than that.”
Mr Halliwell confirmed that Mahindra will launch battery electric vehicles in Australia next year, a new-generation ute in 2026 and updates to the Scorpio 4x4 wagon that will bring much-needed advanced driver assist systems to that model.
