Mahindra & Mahindra could start assembling vehicles in Russia within two years, according to Pawan Goenka, president for automotive business at the SUV maker.
He added that Mahindra may utilise the services of the local partner that currently assembles and distributes Ssangyong vehicles, the Indian company’s South Korea unit.
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Goenka said: “Russia is the biggest market for Ssangyong outside South Korea. We are engaging Ssangyong’s distributor to look [at] assembling Mahindra vehicles there.
“Russia is a huge opportunity already for Ssangyong and holds a lot of potential for Mahindra as well.”
Goenka is also the chairman of Ssangyong.
The South Korean brand currently makes and sells about 2,000 SUVs each month in Russia. Goenka added that Ssangyong is considering making its SUVs in Russia from completely-knocked-down (CKD) kits instead of semi-knocked-down kits (SKD) currently.
In its domestic market, Goenka said monthly production of Mahindra’s latest XUV500 SUV will be increased by 1,000 units to 4,000 vehicles by May and eventually 5,000 vehicles to meet strong demand in India. He added that export plans for the model have been temporarily halted due to capacity constraints.
