Global Vehicles USA to Attempt $35 Million Order for Mahindra Pickups

Posted by Mike Levine | September 23, 2010

Global Vehicles USA to Attempt $35 million Order for Mahindra Pickups

Despite a bitter ongoing dispute, Georgia-based auto distributor Global Vehicles USA said it will attempt to place a $35 million order on Friday with Indian truck maker Mahindra to launch its compact clean-diesel pickup trucks in the U.S.

GV USA and Mahindra are fighting in arbitration and in U.S. federal court over repeated delays getting Mahindra's pickup certified for sale in the U.S.

Over the past two months, Mahindra has issued two news releases stating that its relationship with GV USA has "expired" while Global Vehicles says Mahindra took unfair advantage of an escape clause in its contract to terminate its relationship with GV USA after the trucks received emissions certification from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Mahindra released a new statement Wednesday on its corporate website that said it was GV USA that had let the escape clause in the distribution contract lapse.

If Mahindra accepts the order, GV USA said the first TR20 and TR40 pickups would be delivered to dealers in the Southeast, followed by other regions over the next eight months. First-year sales volume could reach 30,000 units.

GV USA also said the company and the approximately 350 Mahindra dealers it recruited in 49 states have invested almost $100 million to bring Mahindra's trucks to the U.S.

Mahindra TR-Series will be offered in two cab configurations: a two-door regular cab and a four-door crew cab. Both will use a slightly modified version of Mahindra's mHawk 2.2-liter inline-four-cylinder diesel engine that uses diesel exhaust fluid (urea) selective catalytic reduction to maintain emissions compliance. It's expected to have fuel economy ratings as high as 30 mpg and 1.3-ton hauling capability. Pricing is expected to start around $22,000.

[Source: Global Vehicles USA]

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Comments

Good luck with that one, boys.
You GV fellas are done.

Posted by: Don | Sep 24, 2010 7:21:26 AM

Ugly little sucker but competition benefits us all in the end.

Posted by: Dennis | Sep 24, 2010 7:51:14 AM

49 states huh... I hope the dealers in Delaware were all smart enough to stay the hell away from this.

Posted by: Shawn | Sep 24, 2010 8:35:38 AM

Buyers should be looking into reliability data before buying this! If/when you need something fixed, will there be a long wait for parts?

Posted by: supercrew02 | Sep 24, 2010 9:30:41 AM

You know at first it seemed like kind of a cool little truck. But after seeing how poorly managed the company is and cheap the owners are. I couldn't own one.

Posted by: FordGuy1988 | Sep 24, 2010 10:30:26 AM

I'll bet Mahindra will take a page from International Harvester and sell their trucks through their implement dealers.

Posted by: Bill R. | Sep 24, 2010 10:45:18 AM

@FordGuy,

I have the same sentiment. This would be worse than being the Guinea pig for the EcoBoost motors, however, Ford and it's motor have never dissappointed me even if it were to break. They all break!!

Posted by: Frank | Sep 24, 2010 1:37:54 PM

Looking at this from Mahindra's point of view I think they are smart enough to realize that this truck is "not ready for prime time" and they are using the certification issues as an excuse and to buy time to get a much improved model to market. If they're smart they realize that if the initial model is a p.o.s. then they will have a much harder time overcoming a bad reputation.
G.V. on the other hand has invested a lot of money in this and they realize that there are enough diesel fans out there who will buy anything diesel, irregardless of the potential problems and by forcing Mahindra to supply the trucks just so they can hopefully break even.
I would not expect these dealers to do anything to stand behind the product, they just want to break even on the money invested.

Posted by: david wright | Sep 24, 2010 2:02:16 PM

@ David - I see this order as an attempt to show that Mahindra's delays have beeen to break the contract with G.V. not QC issues.

Posted by: Lou | Sep 24, 2010 2:51:20 PM

but the difference is Bill... IH actually produced die hard vehicles and had support in place to repair them

Posted by: mattf | Sep 24, 2010 4:26:55 PM

Now thats reassuring....IF Mahindra accepts the order...
What about warranty claims? IF Mahindra accepts those?
IF Mahindra ships spare parts with that 35 million dollar order...
IF IF..
Too many IFs.
STAY AWAY!!

Posted by: Paul | Sep 24, 2010 4:27:24 PM

Lou, anything is possible. But I can't think of any upside for Mahindra to break their contract with G.V. and seemingly conduct themselves in our eyes as total jack-a$$es. It seems to me that if the truck barely sells in the third world it sure isn't going to sell in a market that is 3/4 yuppies and soccer mommies. In a couple of years I fully expect them to present to us a much more womanized Mahindra.

Posted by: david wright | Sep 24, 2010 7:36:35 PM

Matt, I'm well aware that IH trucks were/are vastly better vehicles than this little Mahindra tin can. What I said was Mahindra may well take a page from IH's marketing book. As far as whether Mahindra implement dealers could rise to the occasion and be able to service the trucks as well as IH did for theirs, that's hard to predict. You may be right, as the modern Mahindra is necessarily more complex than the the IH of yore.

Posted by: Bill R. | Sep 25, 2010 8:33:47 PM

GAS MILLAGE This is the only reason mehindra trucks are appeling to most Americans. All American mid size and small trucks in production are lagging the rest of the world in technalogy. Whats really sad is that America (FORD and GM) Currantly has technology that exceeds Mahindra's in line Diesel, with 28% better fuel millage to boot. America will be behind the rest of the world again if they don't release it, and use it!

Posted by: Rick | Sep 25, 2010 9:08:26 PM

No Judge on his worst day is going to honor Mahindra's BOC.
GV operating in good faith took money for alot of cash strapped businesses. A deal is a deal. This is the USA and one of the largest markets in the world for this product. If these guy's think this is good for Mahindra products in the USA they really do not understand our Markets or consumers. The tractors were doing good but now they may have shot themselves in the foot. Where is their PR firm . Someone needs to slap someone over there for this major mistake. In the end if they want to sell to the us they will be using the GV dealers and will be working to overcome an abuse of consumer confidence which did not exist several months ago. How much was it worth to your brand Mahindra. absolutely foolish.

A bird in the hand boys. look it up. it's not worth a billion dollar blunder.

I am now shopping for a Jeep again . I can't wait anymore.
See ya in about, oh 7-10 years.

Posted by: Ron | Oct 9, 2010 3:51:33 PM

wouldnt you love to see a toyota or nissan with a diesel engine, 1.3 lb. payload, 30 + mpg,71/2 foot bed, well you never will if mahindra doesnt sell these trucks here

Posted by: steve | Nov 22, 2010 9:55:23 AM

While they play games the Chinese are developing a comparable vehicle that will sell for less. The window of opportunity is closing. Use it, or Lose it!

Posted by: Bruce | Jan 6, 2011 1:32:33 PM