Indian SUV maker sells 100,000 cars in a half hour

The first batch of Mahindra Scorpio-Ns was sold out online in 55 seconds and caused the website to crash

The Scorpio-N SUV, from one of India’s largest vehicle manufacturers, Mahindra & Mahindra, proved an instant success on the domestic market, with the first 25,000 units sold out in less than a minute after sales were launched, Carscoops reported this week.

The frenzy caused the automaker’s website to crash within 55 seconds and reportedly left many more prospective buyers out of the initial batch. In total, the company secured over 100,000 orders within the first 30 minutes of the launch. As each booking included a mandatory deposit of 18,000 rupees ($227), Mahindra generated a total of $22.7 million in half an hour of sales.

The Scorpio-N SUV, which the company refers to as “the big daddy of SUVs,” is Mahindra’s latest version of its Scorpio SUV with modern styling and high-end technology.

The model was announced last May, with the official debut following in June, but did not go on sale until last week.

The rush among prospective buyers may be due to the relatively low price Mahindra placed on the first promotional batch of Scorpio-Ns, ranging from $15,178 to $24,673, depending on the package. The company said prices for subsequent batches will be higher.

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Mahindra said deliveries of the first Scorpio-Ns are scheduled to start on September 26, and the company plans to produce 20,000 more vehicles by December.

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