Mahindra’s cut-price four-wheel drive ute – now one of the oldest vehicles in the segment – will soldier on in its current form for the foreseeable future, with no successor in sight.
A successor to the 14-year-old Mahindra Pik Up – one of the oldest vehicles in the ute segment – won’t follow closely behind the recently launched Scorpio SUV, according to a high-ranking executive for the company.
The Indian car-maker recently launched its first new model in almost 10 years – the Mahindra Scorpio SUV – which was also expected to form the basis of a new ute.
As night follows day, most car makers launch their pick-ups and ute-derived SUVs – such as the Isuzu D-Max and Isuzu MU-X, or the Mitsubishi Triton and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport – within 12 to 18 months of each other.
In some cases, manufacturers launch the vehicles at the same time, such as the Ford Ranger and Ford Everest and Toyota HiLux and Toyota Fortuner.
However, for now, plans for a Mahindra Pik-Up successor remain unclear.
“It is very early days for us to comment on that,” regional Mahindra boss Joydeep Moitra told local media last week at the launch of the new Scorpio SUV.
“The proposition of a ute is different to an SUV. They need the same things like high torque and high towing capacity. But the vehicle has a different footprint, so we have to work through it to see how we progress.”
The uncertainty around a new Mahindra Pik-Up comes despite the model being on sale in Australia for 14 years, albeit while receiving some updates during that time.
This includes the introduction of a new 2.2-litre turbo diesel engine (replacing a 2.5-litre engine) in 2011, and a facelift in 2018.
Mahindra’s strategy – of delaying the rollout of a new ute – is at odds with similar offerings from other manufacturers, where platform-sharing four-wheel-drive utes and SUVs are developed and launched at similar times.
This is despite the previous-generation Mahindra Scorpio – which is still on sale in India as the Scorpio-C – sharing the same ‘ladder frame’ chassis and powertrain options as the Pik-Up ute.
READ MORE: 2023 Mahindra Scorpio Review
However, Mr Moitra told Drive the possibility of a next-generation Pik-Up is “on the table”.
“We will look at utilising this (platform). We will take a lot of feedback on the product performance as it happens,” the executive said.
“This is a different generation product, because we’ll want to leapfrog into a little bit of the lifestyle market in the ute segment.”
Currently the Mahindra Pik-Up appeals to primarily to rural buyers due to it’s agricultural design and features – and low asking price, which starts at $30,990 drive-away for a diesel-powered, four-wheel-drive S6 single-cab ute.
Mahindra recently launched the choice of a six-speed automatic transmission, which costs up to $38,500 drive-away for a S11 dual-cab four-wheel drive.
The post Not coming soon: Next-generation Mahindra Pik-Up ute appeared first on Drive.
