Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, has announced that its very first All-New Thar has raised ₹1.11 crore through an online auction, that witnessed almost 5,500 registrations from nearly 550 locations from India.Mahindra has matched the amount raised at the auction and the total proceeds of ₹2.22 crore will be donated towards COVID-19 relief work.The winning bid was placed by Aakash Minda from New Delhi at ₹1.11 crore, over 4 times the auction reserve price which was set at ₹25 lakh. The winning bidder has chosen Swades Foundation to receive the entire proceeds from the auction and support COVID-19 relief work.The hard-fought auction garnered interest among several bidders, including those from big cities and small towns, across every corner of the country.Bidders were spread across locations such as New Delhi, Chikmagalur (Karnataka), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Ernakulum (Kerala), Medinipur (West Bengal), Rajkot (Gujarat), Ballia (Uttar Pradesh), Pathanamthitta (Kerala), Jorhat (Assam), Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu), Bhagalpur (Bihar), Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh), Ganganagar (Rajasthan), Kohima (Nagaland), amongst several others and they bid actively over a period of 6 days, Mahindra & Mahindra said in a statement.Thirty seven bidders had put their top bid value at more than ₹50 lakh and 4 bidders bid at over ₹1 crore each. The total value of the bids amounted to ₹105,09,00,000 Pawan Goenka, MD & CEO, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., said, “It is heartening to see the interest and generosity that this auction for the All-New Thar#1 has garnered from across every corner of the country. For Mahindra, this is a historic moment and given the huge interest around the All-New Thar, we believe that we have created a product that our customers would be proud to own.”The online registrations for the auction opened on September 19, 2020. The auction began on September 24, 2020 and concluded at 6 p.m. on September 29, 2020.
