BENGALURU, May 26 Reuters Indian automaker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd on Friday warned that chip shortages were still limiting its efforts to ramp up production of sports utility vehicles SUVs after reporting a 22 rise in quarterly profit.

The maker of the Scorpio, Thar and XUV range of SUVs benefited from robust demand for larger and pricier vehicles that made up more than half of India39;s record passenger vehicle sales in fiscal 2023.

Chip shortages prevented the company from meeting its monthly SUV production target of 39,000 units, Rajesh Jejurikar, chief executive at Mahindra39;s auto and farm sector, said in a press conference.

Still, demand for its SUVs stood strong, with more than 292,000 open bookings as of May 1.

The company said it raised the cash deployed for 20222024 capex for the auto business to 95 billion rupees from 79 billion rupees, in a bid to boost capacity and absorb regulatory costs.

Mahindra has no immediate plans of making cells for its electric vehicle batteries on its own and is still evaluating production through its Volkswagen tieup, Jejurikar said. It currently gets batteries from a Korean supplier.

The automaker39;s standalone profit after tax rose to 15.49 billion rupees 187.45 million in the JanuaryMarch quarter, from 12.69 billion rupees a year earlier.

It recorded a onetime charge of 5.12 billion rupees due to impairment provisions on longterm investments.

Mahindra said it expects a low impact to tractor sales from the El Nino…