Latest Car News in India

Mahindra shelves US plans

The global meltdown has its repercussions everywhere even on Mahindra India as well. The slowdown in US economy seems to have desisted the SUV maker from launching any of its cars there. Mahindra hoped to launch Mahindra Scorpio based pick up trucks in there just as it did in Australia. As per the reports on the internet, the car maker has put on hold its US foray plans indefinitely. However, in its statement Mahindra has reportedly reasoned it on account of the changes in certification norms as well as the present meek market conditions in US.

Mahindra has been dreaming its US foray since 2006 and has attempted to give a boost to its efforts in launching Mahindra cars in US but in vain. En route, it also had to face difficulties and allegations by the car dealer it had appointed in US who sued Mahindra for delaying the launch of Mahindra cars in US. The India SUV maker had appointed Global Vehicles as its dealer and promised to launch its cars in US in 2008 but sensing the dilly dallying attitude adopted by Mahindra, the US based car dealers sued it recently for cheating.

Significantly, Mahindra cars will be new to the US but Mahindra tractors and some pick up trucks are quite popular in there just as these are in Australia where the car maker has made an entry in the SUV segment with the Mahindra XUV 500. Now in the changed circumstances, Mahindra has reportedly said that it will be assessing the market conditions and will chalk out a fresh strategy. Meanwhile, the auto analysts believe that Mahindra will be launching the Ssangyong brand SUVs such as Ssangyong Rexton and Ssangyong Korando in India soon and it is believed that it will be taking these SUVs to the US as well.