Indian automaker Mahindra, which this week launched the first right-hand drive Logan models built by a joint venture with Renault, will return to the UK by the end of this year with a new SUV and a new pick-up.
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“We have a shortlist of importers and will make a decision on who we will go with by the end of the summer,” said Pawan Goenka, president of Mahindra & Mahindra’s automotive sector.
Mahindra – once known for a Jeep look-alike model, pulled out of the UK more than a decade ago, and now admits products sold till then just weren’t up to UK standards.
Today, the company has an all-new 4×4/SUV, the Scorpio, developed in-house and available both as a full-size SUV and a pick-up. It also has an MPV (minivan) under development which is due for launch in mid-2008.
The move to the UK is part of Mahindra’s global expansion. “We want to be known as a global SUV brand,” said Anand Mahindra, managing director of M&M. That means SUVs, MPVs and utility vehicles.
“We don’t want to get into passenger cars but I do want us to be in the top three as a global SUV brand.”
The company will enter the USA in 2009 with the marketing slogan ‘The guilt-free SUV’. By then there will be a upgraded version of the Scorpio available.
Mahindra has already started selling the Scorpio in Spain, France and Italy but has ruled out Germany because the SUV market there is not price-sensitive, said Mahindra speaking to journalists after the ceremony to mark the start of Mahindra-Renault Logan production at the company’s factory north of Mumbai.
Mahindra described the diesel-engined Scorpio as a “pick up for farmers and an SUV for those who live in the country.”
The backlash against 4x4s is “an opportunity for us – we want to become a leader in hybrids and alternative fuels and at the moment diesel SUVs are at the heart of our business,” said Mahindra.
For anyone who mourns the passing of the Daihatsu Fourtrak (very popular in its time with UK farmers and parents towing children’s ponies to gymkhanas), the Mahindra Scorpio could be just what they need.
Mahindra’s other major ambition is to move up the world tractor pecking order. “We are number four now and want to be number one. We are already having great success in Australia and the US,” said Mahindra.
Tractor output is currently 100,000 units a year and Scorpio production is 175,000.
