Mahindra is not inspiring confidence. After several delays, the news is that they are almost ready to submit EPA certification paperwork. Which means that an actual approval to sell their trucks in the U.S. is still some time away, on the order of months. Meanwhile, dealers are getting antsy. Some of them have paid around $200,000 for a franchise, plus much more for showroom remodelling, but don't have anything to show for it yet. And Mahindra is clamming up, refusing to comment to Automotive News:
Repeated efforts to speak with top officials at Mahindra and Global proved unsuccessful. A spokesman for Global Vehicles said CEO John Perez was out of the country and unavailable for comment. A request to speak with other Global Vehicles executives went unanswered.
Efforts to reach Perez -- a normally talkative businessman with a rich baritone that carries a slight trace of his childhood in Cuba -- drew a response from a U.S. representative of Mahindra & Mahindra in New York. The representative said that Goenka would prefer to handle discussions of the venture instead of Perez. But Goenka was not available for interviews.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100329/RETAIL07/303299954#ixzz0msQyYrXJ
Pickuptrucks.com item here.
One of the reasons for the delay is that the U.S. importer asked Mahindra to make many changes to the trucks, to bring them up to American customer expectations. This forced some re-engineering of the trucks, which then required re-testing.
I am planning on looking one of these over, maybe test driving it, when (and if) they finally do go on sale.
It isn't easy to break into the consumer auto business. There is a reason that only a few huge companies are able to do it, and (sometimes) make money at it. The regulatory hurdles are very high.
