The Indian truck major Mahindra&Mahindra announced that it is rescheduling the launch of Scorpio-based pick up meant for the US roads. The launch will be not before this December, it said as the company is to get clearance from the US Environmental Protection Agency by this July. Only after that the production would commence, said the President(Automotive) of M&M.
Further factors attributed to the postponement are necessary changes made in the truck to meet the US norms and the US customers’ tastes. He asserted that the company does not want to take chances by leaving any parameter to displease the US customers. The delay in the launch will make the time gap of more than 18 months since the actual launch was slated for mid-2009. This is the second put off as the first one was due to the recession and failure to comply with the US regulations and norms.
M&M, for its part has come out with 175 prototypes of which 30 have been tested in the US. M&M is planning to make the truck as export after assembling here at its Chakan plant. This would invite a tax about 25% levied on imported pick-ups. In all probabilities M&M is sure to go upto next December for the truck, which is yet to get a name(some claim that it may be called TR20 and TR40 based on the model). Mahindra likes to gain a lot by launching the truck with its brand name.
M&M’s investment for this US product is somewhere around $70-80 million. The company is sketching an initial 5-7% market share in the US. M&M’s product line has got an SUV on the Scorpio version by December 2011 and another SUV (gas electric hybrid before 2013)