Mahindra-PickUp
Mahindra & Mahindra, which is already selling its tractors in the US market, is now gearing to export its Scorpio-based pick-up trucks there by March-2010. It may be recalled that M&M had earlier told reporters that it hopes that North America will ultimately become its largest export market. India’s largest utility vehiclemaker had also indicated earlier that it may buy a manufacturing facility in the U.S. to produce pickup trucks if the vehicles meet with sufficient U.S. customer demand when they are imported next year. There is also a buzz that the US facility for assembling the Scorpio range of vehicles could be that of Navistar, with whom Mahindra has forged an alliance for manufacturing commercial vehicles in India. Once launched, the Mahindra’s models will be competing with established players like Ford and General Motors which have similar offerings.
“We are fully ready with the product (customised for the US market) and even the US manufacturing facility. We are waiting for some regulatory approvals to launch Scorpio in the US in this quarter,” said Dr. Pawan Goenka, President, Auto Sector, was quoted as saying to Hindubusinessline exclusively.
To begin with, the Mumbai-based company will be shipping its models as completely built-up units (CBU) to the US market and later take a call on contracting it to somebody or investing in a small plant. It will begin with two-door (TR20) and four-door (TR40) pick-up trucks, which will be fitted with 2.2-litre common-rail turbodiesel engines and six-speed automatic transmissions and will then introduce an SUV. It is to be mentioned that the company currently owns three farm-tractor assembly plants in the U.S.
It was reported quite earlier that has already appointed as many as 300-350 dealers (with Global Vehicles as its distributor), who are setting up the front-end infrastructure for the company's foray. Apart from the sales and service network, the company plans to have central and other smaller regional warehouses for parts.
"We will start exporting our Scorpio platform vehicle in the US markets by February-March 2010. We plan to start with around 2,000 vehicles and hope that the US will be our biggest export market soon," M&M executive vice-president (International Operations Automotive sector) P.N. Shah told reporters on the sidelines of SIAM annual convention in New Delhi last year. Shah also said, "We don't need big volumes to assemble the pickup in the US and we may do it." He added that the company has planned a total outlay of about US$ 100 million for the U.S. launches of pickup trucks, of which about US$ 80 million has already been spent at that time.
Tony Posted on 6/7/2010 9:10:53 PM
Texas has a dealership, the site says available Dec. 2010 http://www.dfwmahindra.com/
Pat Martin Posted on 5/4/2010 11:32:08 PM
I signed up for E-mail news and test drive 2 years ago and have yet to be contacted? Has GM bought them off and sent them packing like all the other diesel engine vehicle mfgs?
kirkydu Posted on 4/27/2010 10:32:11 PM
GM is fighting this pretty hard, hopefully these trucks make it soon. At a minimum it will force the American car companies to start building similar vehicles which they already have the tech for.
Acquanetta Posted on 4/14/2010 4:22:35 PM
It is now the middle of April 2010, when will the trucks be introduced? We have been waiting to test drive every since summer ''09, when your company said the trucks will be in the U.S. by the end of 2009.
Michael Posted on 4/6/2010 2:11:32 AM
What would the pickups cost, and can they be purchased with manual transmissions?
Want to sell/purchase Vehicles