After a decade away, Indian four-wheel drive off roader brand Mahindra is to return to the UK.
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It will launch here in summer 2007 with a new SUV, the Goa [the European export version of the Indian market Scorpio], and a workhorse pick-up truck.
Pawan Goenka, president of the firm’s automotive division, revealed the comeback at the Madrid motor show in Spain this week.
He was there as part of the firm’s return to Spain, following successful ventures in Italy and France. Belgium is next, by the end of the year, and Britain will follow.
Goenka told just-auto he’s already in negotiations to find a distributor.
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By GlobalData“We are looking to create a dealer network, but we won’t be in multi-franchise showrooms. Whoever becomes our distributor will have to open Mahindra sites. We have minimum standards, and each must to be able to display three cars comfortably. We want people to be able to walk around the cars because we are [not only] creating an image for the company but also for India.”
Mahindra’s first offering will be the Goa, a seven or eight-seat off-roader with a 2.6-litre 115bhp common-rail turbodiesel engine. In GLX trim it has central locking, air-con, power windows, two airbags and optional leather upholstery.
The automaker hopes to sell up to 1,000 a year in the UK and while it’s too early for prices, in Spain the Goa is EUR21,000 (GBP14,300).
Mahindra was founded in Mumbai in 1945. Its last UK market car was the Classic, a Jeep Wrangler copy built under licence from Chrysler. Distributed by a company called Motor Industry Group, it sold in tiny numbers and was axed in 1996.
In 2002 Mahindra launched new vehicles designed in-house, and last year topped 150,000 sales globally. All but a fraction were sold only in India.
For many British customers – particularly ones who remember the CityRover, a rebadged Tata Indica– taking an Indian car seriously could be hard.
“This is one thing we have to overcome. We don’t want to be coloured by other companies, but we have generally found that once people get to know our product it doesn’t last too long,” he Goenka said.
Richard Yarrow
