Saturday, August 1, 2009

Mahindra Pik-up in US by Feb 2010

To a certain extent, cars made by Indian automakers are making their mark all over the world. The good news is that it is growing positively. Previously Indian automaker Mahindra has exported its cars to countries like South Africa. Now the PTI is reporting that Mahindra will start sales of their Pik-up in the United States by February next year.

Pawan Goenka is the president of the automotive
sector at M&M. He stated, “We will start production of Mahindra ‘Pik-up’ utility vehicle
by December this year for the US and by end-February next year, the vehicle will be sold there (in the US). Earlier, we had a capex plan of Rs 5,000 crore but during the third quarter last year, we reduced it by 10 per cent to Rs 4,500 crore for a period between mid-FY’ 09 and FY’12.”

Mahindra has been doing well when it comes to utility vehicles as they sold some 48,720 units in Q1 as the segment grew by 2 percent in that quarter. Though M&M’s share grew, Goenka has pointed out that high excise rates are affecting the growth of the utility vehicle industry and predicted that there would be single-digit growth in the coming few months.