Indian automaker to build their pickup trucks in U.S.
Mahindra, an Indian automaker, might outsource their assembly of trucks to US. Their fan side, Mahindra Planet, says that the company is planning to build their US market long delayed pickup at Muscle Shoals, Alabama facility and it was recently leased by Navistar, an Illinois based truck maker. These two companies are involved in a joint venture for the Indian markets.
Mahindra has been working hard to bring their compact diesel powered pick up truck to the US for a lot of years for making a successful farm equipment and tractor business here in US. The farthest they got was in the year 2006 when their partner, Global Vehicles (Nevada importer) got a certification from EPA for 2011 model but after that all the plans fell apart. We asked about this to an official from Navistar but he refused to comment on it. However, our sources say that this company will be building a facility by next year.
Mahindra is saying that the TR20 and TR40 pickup line will be getting up to 30 miles per gallon but 4×4 model that the EPA got for testing only managed 19 and 21 mpg of city and highway respectively. We are also expecting a SUV model.
Mahindra Planet says that these vehicles will be assembled at Alabama and the parts will be shipped from India. This will let Mahindra avoid a twenty five percent import tax that is levied currently on the light trucks.
