Utility and tractor major Mahindra & Mahindra is stepping up plans to launch diesel-powered pick-up trucks in the US.
The company has tied up with US’ biggest vehicle distributor Global Vehicles to sell the brand.
The company’s diesel-powered pick-ups had slow sales in South Africa, where they were launched in 2006. Compared to that, US is a mature market and the company wants to cash in on the opportunity created by the disinterest of global majors.
By competitively pricing its products in the American market, M&M plans to launch the diesel-powered two-door and four-door pick-up trucks. The SUV will be based on the Scorpio platform, completely redesigned for the US according to the stringent emission norms and badged differently. As the US is a brand-conscious market and M&M is little-known there, the company will initially target the vehicles at the ‘green consumers, tractor customers and the Indian expatriates in the US’.
Initially, the vehicles will land in the US as completely-knocked-down units. The company has a plan to make local assembling units when the sales go high.
M&M is yet to decide on the pricing, production targets and advertising spends for the US market.