Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd is looking to enter the US market and has signed an agreement with independent distributor Global Vehicles USA Inc, a spokesman for the distributor said on Monday.
Mahindra plans to launch two vehicles, a pickup truck and a sports utility vehicle called the Scorpio, in the United States in 2008, said spokesman Tom Persons of Alpharetta, Georgia-based Global Vehicles.
“We are looking at pretty aggressive volumes,” Persons said, but he declined to give a specific target.
He said Global Vehicles will announce more details in mid-April.
Formed in 1945 to make Willys Jeeps in India, Mahindra has cornered nearly half the market for utility vehicles and is the world’s No 4 tractor maker. But it is among the smaller automakers in the global market.
This is a reasonably homely potato — along the lines of earlier Suzukis — but, the diesel-electric drivetrain option is intriguing.
Of course, the critter I’d like to have for shopping and errands, commuting around town is their 1/2-ton Champ Alfa.
Man I’d buy one of those trucks. They’re so damn cute!
“Cute” isn’t generally thought of as the proper description that sells trucks. In fact, Dodge has built an entire advertising campaign around their new smaller SUV is anything but cute.
#2
First, I never said anyone but myself would buy one.
Second, Dodge is the number 3 truck seller in the US.
Cool, and just a reminder. The very first hybrid in America was a diesel, the diesel locomotive. The reason had nothing to do with fuel economy or environmental concerns. There is no clutch on earth that could handle starting a freight train from a dead stop. Only an electric motor has constant torque from 0 rpm to maximum. Locomotives are run by electric motors fed by huge diesel generators.
The little three wheelers are incredibly useful for machine shops, where you can back one up to a machine mill, automatic lathe or an injection molder and when it’s loaded up, just drive it down the road. They are maneuverable enough to negotiate down and around corridors inside buildings and even ride inside some passenger lifts. I have seen similarly sized Suzuki pickups, once where the entire back was an espresso machine. Smallness offers unexpected advantages.
Unfortunately, the Nitro, like it’s Jeep cousin, has been harishly criticized by the critics for its brutal ride, terrible fit anfd finish, cheap materials, and other lapses. Autoweek described it as “miserable.”
Maybe they WOULD have been better off to go for the cute market segment…
Tom
A clean diesel hybrid is the best of both worlds to me. The two technologies compliment each other beautifully. I truly hope it succeeds as it might then push others in the same direction.
4. There is no clutch on earth that could handle starting a freight train from a dead stop.
Interesting tidbit.
Thanks.
Makes me think of all the Westerns I’ve seen, over the years, with the steam locomotive pulling out of the station – as the interval between the power and exhaust strokes gets shorter and shorter…
Suzuki pickups, once where the entire back was an espresso machine.
WOW! I WANT ONE OF THOSE!
Yep…..I can see it all now….as my Dad pulls into the Buckeye Cafe for his morning coffee in one of those, and says to the assembly of burly, knarled ranchers….***what ya think of my CUTE truck***…..yep….rest in peace.
Actually, the horse ranch across the valley from me has two of the little three-wheelers. They don’t have them registered for on-road use; but, they truck hay and whatever all over the spread — and use damned little fuel.
Admittedly, the ranch-owner hasn’t been in ranching as long as your family [I think]; but, the True Locals accept him pretty well — especially since he started sponsoring and hosting the annual cowboy-on-horseback shooting contest.
Of course, he also hosts polo matches; but, that’s why he breeds and sells the horses!
What’s important about this two-wheeler is not that it may be cute but that it runs on compressed hydrogen gas with zero CO2 emission.
The three-wheeler mentioned in the article may not be the one shown in the post.
#12: it runs on compressed hydrogen gas with zero CO2 emission.
Not entirely true. While the vehicle itself may not emit CO2, the power stations that generate the electricity needed to make the hydrogen certainly do!
What, they stole the name from the Ford Scorpio? Now, that’s weak 🙂