After a few delays and a great deal of speculations, Mahindra sets it straight in an interview by Dow Jones Newswires as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

While the first few batches of pickups will be assembled in India, Mahindra is planning on getting Navistar to build their TR pickups on one of their US factories. This move will allow Mahindra to avoid the chicken tax, which imposes a 25% tariff on light duty trucks produced outside the US.

“Once we decide to assemble in the U.S., we would look at Navistar’s facilities to see if there’s something available which is right for us and if that works out,” said Pawan Goenka, president of Mahindra’s automotive division. “We will certainly give priority to using Navistar’s facilities.”

Mahindra and Navistar are already working together in two joint ventures in India: one is for trucks and buses and the other is for the diesel engines for the said vehicles. According to Mr. Goenka, contract manufacturing of their pickups will be more cost-effective as compared to buying a factory in the US, since “the investment won’t be more than a few million dollars.”

The Scorpio-based pickups to be sold in the US this year will be imported from India and delivered to US shores starting the 2nd quarter of 2010.