Mahindra

May 26, 2009

Oops, Someone at Mahindra Misspoke, Kinda - Some Pickups Due in U.S. This Year

mahindralogo copy.jpg A spokesman for Global Vehicles , the U.S., distributor for Mahindra & Madindra , says this morning's report of a delayed launch of the company's diesel pickups here was an accurate report of an inaccurate comment by an official of the Indian company.

Huh?

Seems a Mahinda executive misspoke in an interview with the Asian Wall Street Journal when he said the company wouldn't launch sales of its diesel pickup in the U.S. until sometime next year.

In fact, said spokesman Michael Geylin, Global is planning a slow, region-by-region rollout of the trucks, beginning late this year in the Southeastern states.

There won't be a flood, more like a tickle, but a "small number" of Mahindra diesels will be on sale in this country by the end of the year, Geylin said. But the company won't be selling nationwide until the latter part of 2010, he said.

The rest of the info in this morning's article was correct, we're happy to say.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); John O'Dell May 26, 2009, 3:03 PM
Categories:: Diesel, Mahindra
Technorati Tags:: Diesel Pickups

Mahindra Reportedly Delaying Fuel-Efficient Diesel Pickup for U.S. Until 2010

(Note: See new article that corrects misstatement by Mahindra executive: Small number of diesel trucks will go on sale in Southeastern U.S. by end of 2009.)

Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra now says it will be sometime next year before it begins selling its diesel-powered compact pickup (right) in the U.S., the second change in plans since the company initially announced its plans for the American market early last year.

The company, which had planned on launching U.S. sales this year, also now plans to import the first trucks from India rather than assembling them in the U.S.,according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

That strategy will require Mahindra to pay a 25 percent import duty on each vehicle but will save it the cost of a U.S. assembly plant.

Initially, Mahindra had said it would assemble the trucks at a plant in Ohio from parts shipped in from India in order to avoid the so-called Chicken Tax tariff - a hangover from a 1963 import war between the U.S. and Europe in which the U.S. imposed a stiff tax on imported pickups in retaliation for a European tax on U.S. chickens.

The change in plans was prompted by the global recession and the resulting plunge in new vehicle sales in the U.S. Mahindra previously canceled plans to bring a diesel-electric hybrid pickup to the U.S.

Mahindra's trucks, at last report, are to be powered by a 2.2-liter diesel engine mated to a six-speed automatic transmission and are expected to achieve an EPA fuel economy rating of 30 miles per gallon in combined highway and city driving. the company makes both two- and four-door models.

Pricing hasn't been announced, but is expected to range from $22,000 to $25,000.

Mahindra has said that it also wants to bring a small SUV to the U.S. after it gains maket traction with its pickups.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (1); John O'Dell May 26, 2009, 8:13 AM
Categories:: Diesel, Mahindra
Technorati Tags:: Chicken Tax

February 17, 2009

Mahindra Wants to Hybridize India, Eyes Stop-Start 'Micro-Hybrid' as 1st Step

Automaker Sees U.S. Market As Ready For Its 30 MPG Diesel Pickups and SUVs

Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian manufacturer specializing in pick-ups and SUVs, believes that what works with value-conscious Indian car buyers will translate to American consumers weary of gas guzzlers but not quite ready to kick their SUV habits.

The company plans to enter the U.S. later this year with two and four-door versions of its pickup (below) followed by an as-yet-unnamed version of its Scorpio SUV (right).

A key part of the trucks' allure will be high fuel-efficiency figures. Power will come from a 2.2-liter common rail four-cylinder diesel engine, fitted to a six-speed automatic transmission. Mahindra representatives say the engine and transmission combination will deliver a fuel economy average of at least 30 mpg in combined city and highway driving.

The company also is working on hybrid powertrains, although the immediate target for them is the Indian market, said Dr. Arun Jaura, Mahindra's group chief technology officer.

"As a diesel-centric company, it was natural for us to get into diesel hybrids," Jaura said. "But at the end of the day, technology itself will not have a lot of traction. Technology that is affordable and seamless is what is needed." He said he believes developing a hybrid culture in India remains top priority.

There are no plans yet to bring a hybrid Mahindra to the U.S., he told Green Car Advisor , reversing previous statements by the company that a diesel-electric hybrid version of its pickup could be headed here as early as next year.

Mahindra already is selling a micro-hybrid with stop-start technology in India.

Developed in cooperation with Bosch, Mahindra's micro-hybrid turns the engine off whenever the vehicle is idling or in neutral. The engine restarts once the clutch is depressed.

The micro-hybrid is only offered on select models of the company's aging Bolero SUV, though Jaura confirmed that it will soon be applied to other models including the Scorpio SUV.

Mahindra claims the micro-hybrid system offers a 5-10 percent improvement in fuel efficiency over the standard model diesel. That would put the Indian-built trucks on par with eco-minded SUVs like Ford's Escape Hybrid, which averages 34 mpg in city and highway driving.

"When we look at the long-term, we see that for us to get there, [hybrid technology] is one of the enablers," said Dr. Jaura, in terms of cleaner emissions at home and projecting a positive image for the company's vehicle lineup in new markets.

Developing a vendor base of hybrid tech within India will prove vital to bringing down costs and widening acceptance of fuel-saving systems, both at home and abroad, he said. "We are learning to walk. At some point, we are going to learn to run."

Nick Kurczewski

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); John O'Dell February 17, 2009, 1:06 PM
Categories:: Diesel, Hybrid, India, Mahindra
Technorati Tags:: Diesel

January 21, 2009

India's Mahindra Says It Will Continue Spending To Develop EVs and Hybrids

Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra says it won't stop investing just because the auto market is in a slump, and is expecting to bring out a line of electric and hybrid vehicles for the Indian market within a few years.

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Hybrid and electric versions of Mahindra's small pickup and SUV could be on the horizon.

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The company is spending upward of 1 billion rupees ($20.3 million) a year on R&D, Mahindra's head of design told reporters in a recent press conference.

The company sees production of lower-emission, fuel-efficient cars and trucks as a necessity, not a luxury, design chief B. Bhaumik said.

"We have to develop technologies for hybrid and electric vehicles" and will launch the first ones "in a couple of years," he said.

Analysts at Global Insight economic forecasting say that Indian consumers have been quick to endorse hybrid technology with their pocketbooks as Toyota introduced its Prius there and Honda its Civic Hybrid.

One reason is fuel economy. The other is that India introduces tough new emissions standards in April 2010 and people are buying clean and green in anticipation.

Whatever the reasons, we wish Mahindra well.

Its product development for India could someday spill over to these shores. The company already has said it will bring a compact pickup with a diesel-electric hybrid system to the U.S. in 2010, and our position is that it is always better for the market, and for competition, to have more of such vehicles.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); John O'Dell January 21, 2009, 9:10 AM
Categories:: Emissions, Fuel Economy, Hybrid, India, Mahindra, Plug-ins and Electric
Technorati Tags:: Electric Vehicles

August 29, 2008

The New Competitors: India's Three-Pronged Approach To The Electric Car Market

By Nick Kurczewski, Contributor

Unwilling to leave the potentially lucrative electric vehicle market to Japanese, European and - maybe - AmericanÂ carmakers, Indian auto companies are rushing to develop EVs of their own.

The impetus is twofold: To combat gridlock and air pollution at home, and to cash in on global demand for cleaner, eco-friendly vehicles.

The Indian firms will be joining a rapidly growing field of manufacturers looking to market environmentally-focused vehicles.

Industry heavy-weights like General Motors, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Renault-Nissan and Daimler all have promised to bring plug-in hybrids or battery-electric vehicles to market within the next three-to-five years.

Some of their upstart Indian competitors, however, say they will hit the market with their electric vehicles as early as the end of this year.

To find out what's on tap, Green Car Advisor took a look at three of the main players in the burgeoning Indian electric vehicle market.

Reva

Reva Electric Car Co. is the minnow of the bunch. And no, we're not referring to the 102 inch length of the company's cartoonish-looking two-door hatchback (right) -- four inches shorter than a Smart Fortwo.

Based in Bangalore, Reva is a small family-owned company that happens to be one of the most established electric car manufacturers in the world, with a vehicle that initially went on sale seven years ago.

A Reva offers room for two adults plus two children in the rear, and a top speed of 50 miles per hour.

Since retail sales began in July 2001, some 2,600 Revas have found homes. Chetan Maini, Reva's deputy chairman and chief technical officer, says the majority have been sold in Bangalore and London, where it's called the "G-Wiz."

Maini explains that Reva's intention was to begin with "one Indian city and one European city," and build the business from there.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (1); John O'Dell August 29, 2008, 2:45 AM
Categories:: Alternative Fuels, Fuels & Technologies, India, Mahindra, Plug-ins and Electric, Reva, Tata
Technorati Tags:: Electric Vehicles

August 26, 2008

Mahindra Elects to Put Diesel Pickup Through More Testing Before Sending to U.S.

Right, Mahindra's Appalachian pickup.

Apparently addressing concerns many Americans might have about spending $20,000 on an Indian-made pickup truck, Mahindra & Mahindra has decided to put 25 of its clean-diesel pickups on U.S. roads to collectively rack up more than 3 million miles in what amounts to additional testing to ensure the model meets U.S. expectations when it goes on sale here in the fall of 2009.

The additional testing will delay the model's U.S. arrival by three months. Mahindra, which sells about 10,000 farm tractors a year in the United States of America, still hopes to be the first Indian company to sell trucks here.

Assuming crude prices remain high, the timing will be good for Mahindra. Although the light-truck market is down, Mahindra's Appalachian pickup -- fitted with a 2.2-liter, four-cylinder engine and a 7.5-foot cargo box -- is expected to get about 30 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving. That's considerably better that what its likely competitors -- the gasoline-powered Ford Ranger and Toyota Tacoma -- get, and the diesel pickup would likely deliver much better towing power.

While it's true that diesel fuel now sells for about 14 percent more than regular gasoline, diesels typically get fuel economy that is 20 percent to 30 percent higher than gasoline-powered engines. And, the Appalachian is expected to meet the emission requirements of all 50 U.S. states, putting it squarely in the so-called "clean diesel" corner.

The Appalachian will be available in two- and four-door versions when it reaches approximately 300 dealers nationwide during the fourth quarter of next year. The same vehicle with a hybrid drivetrain is expected to enter the U.S. market the following year for about $5,000 more before any available tax credits are applied.

Mahindra says the truck will be available in two- and four-wheel drive, come standard with a paddle-shift six-speed automatic transmission, and have a payload capacity of about 2,600 pounds. Final assembly of the Appalachian will be conducted in Ohio to avoid a 25-percent federal import tariff.

Scott Doggett, Contributor

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (4); Scott Doggett August 26, 2008, 8:42 AM
Categories:: Diesel, Emissions, Ford, Fuel Economy, Hybrid, India, Mahindra, Toyota
Technorati Tags:: Appalachian Pickup

May 20, 2008

Fuel Economy Forcing Pickup Market Shakeup

Rising gas costs are moving market from pickups like this Ford F-150...

...to compacts such as this Mahindra diesel from India, coming in 2009.

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

What a difference a few bucks make. The full-size pickup truck, once the cash cow of the domestic auto industry, seems to be on the way, well, not out, but certainly down.

They've become victim of soaring gas prices – although perhaps it would be more accurate to say they've been penalized by their own, inherent, fuel inefficiency.

To help cope, Ford Motor Co., whose F-Series has been the best-selling line of full-size trucks for years, is considering a downsized version of its F-150, according to reports in the Detroit News and the industry journal Automotive News.

And General Motors Corp. is reconsidering the future of the big pickup n a market study aimed at forecasting demand for full-size pickups and SUVs four years from now.

The study will help GM's product planners decide whether to continue pursuing the present shift toward fuel-efficient smaller vehicles and away from big trucks.

Falling Fast

Sales of full-size pickups in the U.S. are down almost 40 percent since 2005.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (5); John O'Dell May 20, 2008, 1:07 PM
Categories:: Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, India, Mahindra

February 20, 2008

Indian Truck Maker Eyeing Ohio for Assembly Plant

Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra is talking to officials in Ohio about the possibility of building a light truck plant there.

The company has said it wants to start selling a small, fuel-efficient diesel-hybrid pickup truck in the U.S. and the Columbus Dispatch newspaper reported today that Ohio state development department officials have confirmed that they've been talking to Mahindra.

The state officials would not confirm that the discussions involved construction of a truck factory.

But Global Vehicles USA, an Alpharetta, Georgia, company that has a U.S. distribution deal with Mahindra, told the newspaper that the company does want to assemble trucks in Ohio from component kits shipped from India.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (1); John O'Dell February 20, 2008, 11:45 AM
Categories:: India, Mahindra

January 16, 2008

And Now, For Something Completely Different ...

Our correspondent tries hydrogen rickshaw on for size.

By Nick Kurczewski, Contributor

NEW DELHI -- Squeezing into the non-existent passenger space of a vehicle built for one turned out to be the easy part.

The driver, seated in the center, and directly behind what looked to be a set of motorcycle handlebars, attempted to fire up the hydrogen-burning engine, again and again.

A sputter, a grumble from the exhaust, one or two feet of forward motion, and then … nothing. The bright blue three-wheeler’s one-cylinder two-stroke motor died, and the trike came to an abrupt stop.

India’s hydrogen-powered future faces similar false starts and the occasional stumble.

But the fact that the world’s 3rd largest economy (in purchasing power) has a roadmap for hydrogen in the first place – not to mention a Ministry of New and Renewable Energy – might come as something of a surprise to those who expect the country’s emissions regulations to be woefully outdated.