M&M to stage US debut with top-end SUVs

Mahindra and Mahindra, the country's largest utility vehicle maker, may have more than one trick up its sleeve for the much-publicised US debut in passenger vehicles.

The debut is expected to take place by the year-end or early next year. Pravin Shah, executive vice-president (overseas operation-automotive sector), M&M, said, "We will make a formal announcement this year upon introducing our vehicles in the US markets. The vehicles (in the US) will not have the same powertrain, which are present in the Indian ones. We may go for a new powertrain taking into consideration the competition we would be facing there."

Asked if the company would engage in a tie-up for sourcing the engines, Shah said, "We will be relying on our in-house development centre for providing the expertise, as we are capable enough to do whatever engineering the project might require."

The company, in November last year, had entered into an agreement with Global Automobiles to sell Scorpio in the US. Under the agreement, M&M would export its diesel and petrol variants of Scorpio and also a specially designed Scorpio pick-ups. It is estimated that the company would export the hybrid version of the vehicle during the second half of next year.

The US is the largest market for sports utility vehicles (SUV) in the world, where every second vehicle sold is an SUV.

The market share of SUVs in the US is almost 50 per cent with a sales tally of over 7 million, including pick-ups. M&M will be directly competing with Hyundai, some Chinese companies and possibly even Tata Motors along with other global giants.

M&M has plans to increase its export share four-fold to 20 per cent of the total sales revenue in 3 years, from the current 5 per cent. The company exported 480 vehicles in February, which was an increase of 86 per cent over 257 vehicles sold in the year-ago period. It exports to countries in Africa, Europe, southeast Asia and Saarc.