Mahindra & Mahindra’s (M&M) managing director has spoken publicly about the difficulties M&M has had working with partner Renault on the Logan project in India.
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Anand Mahindra told Bloomberg that he will ‘never again’ go for a JV ‘where we don’t control changes in the product’.
The Bloomberg report suggests that Mahindra wanted engineering changes made to the under-performing Logan, but these were refused by Renault.
“If you don’t control the product yourself in the local market and respond to regulatory changes, then you are going to have a problem,” Mahindra said in an interview with Bloomberg in Singapore.
“There are discussions going on and everyone is aware of the problem. Renault has to be willing to provide local autonomy for creating changes in the vehicle. It’s a joint venture based on Renault products, not Mahindra products. So it’s in the hands of Renault how they will like to deal with the future,” Mahindra said.
M&M’s head of automotive operations, Dr Goenka, told just-auto earlier this year in an interview that a problem was created for the Logan in India by a change to local duty rules.
“Because of a sudden change in the duty structure in India, the car [Logan] has been penalised. Vehicles with a length under 4-metres attract 30-35% of the duty of those that are over 4-metres,” he said. “Logan is the wrong side of the break. As a consequence, Logan pricing has not been competitive and volumes have been modest.”
Renault has just announced a collaboration with Bajaj Auto for a sub-Logan ultra-cheap car, casting further doubt on its future relationship with M&M.
