In the past, the Indian automotive industry relied heavily on imported technology, but over the past few years, manufacturers started collaborating with foreign vehicle and component manufacturers to make advancements in the industry. Since they started engaging in product innovation through joint efforts in research and development, a host of opportunities opened up for them.

When Tata Motors introduced the fuel-efficient US$2,250-worth compact car, they gained worldwide recognition for their innovative thinking. And when they acquired the luxury brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, people gave them a second look because now they’ve expanded their market to accommodate a different set of buyers.

On the other hand, Mahindra has been a strong player in the tractor business in America, but the passenger vehicle market is another matter. When Mahindra announced their entry to the US market, very few locals were familiar with their brand. We all know that a fresh player in the automotive business is at a huge disadvantage right off the bat, but when Global Vehicles announced the type of vehicles Mahindra will be offering, people started to take notice. Mahindra is making rugged, dressed down, powerful midsize trucks and SUVs in clean diesel and later hybrid powertrains.

It seems the Indian auto manufacturers will be making a mark in the industry in the next few years mainly because they are making the right decisions. They’re building these amazingly innovative, yet functional niche vehicles that are destined to make money.

In an article at DriveInside.com, Mike Hanley, global automotive leader at Ernst & Young, during a recent visit to India said that this is the perfect time for Indian car makers to enter the US market. He also sees great promise in their expansion, citing the Japanese and Korean car companies’ outcomes. He also suggested capitalizing on the small, fuel-efficient car market because of the highly successful small, “green” cars like the Toyota Prius, especially since India is fast becoming the world’s small-car hub. A lot of foreign and local auto suppliers have established their own manufacturing plants for small-cars in India.

Both Tata Motors and Mahindra are set to enter the US market soon and while it may take years before they can gain significant market share, their efforts in innovation will propel them forward, provided they first get past the challenge of satisfying the preferences and standards of the US market.

PickupTrucks.com just reported that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has given their approval to Mahindra’s intent to use and claim ownership of the names TR20 and TR40 for use in commerce.

We’re slowly inching towards the already delayed US debut of the Mahindra trucks. We’re hoping their crash, durability and emission testing goes well so that they can have a smooth ride to the much awaited launch of the Mahindra midsize trucks in February.

There’s still no news from U.S. distributor Global Vehicles when people can actually take the Mahindra trucks for a ride, but if their earlier announcement remains accurate, the “Mahindra Tour Across America” will happen anytime soon. It seems interest for both the TR20 and TR40 only keeps rising everyday though despite the delays. We reported here that GV-USA and Mahindra will be giving a selected number of people all over the nation a chance to test drive their trucks as they drive across America. As of today, there have already been 13,509 total signups at MahindraNA.com.

Because the US Market will be seeing these trucks for the first time, a lot of people are curious to try these vehicles and depending on how well the Mahindra pickups perform, customers can decide if they actually want one or not.

In addition, there may not be a lot of ready showrooms or dedicated websites for other dealers, but some of the Mahindra dealers are doing their part in marketing the incoming Mahindra brand. if you happen to be one of those people near these dealers, you can probably contact them directly so they may be able to assist you.

DFW Mahindra in Arlington, Texas was one of the first US dealers to construct their website and remains one of the best resources among all available dealer websites in America. Safeway Chevrolet in Burgaw, North Carolina also has a nice website and blog dedicated to Mahindra and is now taking deposits for the trucks. If you live in or around Lansing, Michigan, visit Paradise Motors to sign up for a test drive or receive news and happenings about Mahindra. For those in Little Rock, Arkansas, as well as Hattiesburg, Mississippi, you can get in touch with Mahindra Little Rock and Smith Motor Company of Hattiesburg respectively to inquire, test drive or even reserve one for yourself. The showroom at the newly constructed building for Mahindra Southpointe in Sarasota, Florida will be ready soon and those looking to purchase immediately will find their website pretty useful since they placed a copy of their arriving inventory.

It seems crazy to think that people would just reserve these vehicles without even a test drive but a number of dealers are making reservations possible for the few brave souls willing to take the risk. With the new Mahindra dealerships now taking time to build brand awareness online, it might not be long before they actually become available on the US market.

For more information on the dealers mentioned above, please refer to this Mahindra Dealer Directory we’re working on.

Initially, speculations about the Mahindra trucks referred to them in a variety of names including the Appalachian and Pik-Up. The Appalachian, after the vast mountain range in the eastern US and Pik-Up, from what they’re called in Australia. However, this was quickly put to rest as Mahindra apparently decided to go on another direction and dropped the Appalachian name for an alphanumeric code for both their two-door and four-door trucks. PickupTrucks.com reported that the Indian auto manufacturer filed claims on the names TR20 and TR40 at the US Patent and Trademark Office.

More than the trucks, the Mahindra SUV, known all over the world as the Scorpio may also be getting a name makeover as another automaker, Ford owns the rights to the name in the US. The Mahindra Scorpio has won prestigious awards such as Car of the Year by Business Standard Motoring, Best SUV of the Year and Best Car of the Year by BBC World Wheels. Would the Scorpio have the same fate and be reduced to another alphanumeric code like the trucks?

It could very well be. Reports say the reason Mahindra ditched the Appalachian model name is because they wanted to build brand recognition in a market where they are not very well known. Mahindra will be entering the US auto market for the first time and to highlight their name, they decided to use nondescript codes for their trucks.

Mahindra may not be widely accepted in the US today, but if the delays and additional testing are any indication, they are very serious about making a name for themselves here.

While some people are anticipating the launch of the Mahindra diesel trucks formerly called Appalachian on February next year, a few people are more interested in the diesel hybrids they also announced they would bring to America. Unfortunately, because of the delay in their US debut, it is likely that the introduction of the first diesel hybrid trucks in America will start in 2011 instead of 2010. Global Vehicles said Mahindra told them that the hybrid version will come out one year after the standard diesel version. 2011 seems like a really long time from today, so for now, here are some details to expect about the Mahindra diesel hybrids, just to give you something to look forward to.

Mahindra will be coming out with two-door and four-door mid-size diesel hybrid pickups much like their diesel-only TR20 and TR40 as well as diesel-only and diesel hybrid powertrains for their Scorpio SUV. The diesel hybrids are expected to have better fuel economy than the 30 MPG produced by their diesel-only pickups. Mahindra’s Senior VP for Product Development Dr. Arum Jaura told AutoblogGreen that the diesel hybrids will have a price premium of less than $5,000 above their diesel-only counterparts.

Inside the hood, the mid-size trucks will be equipped with a slightly modified version of the ‘mHawk’ 2.2 liter inline 4-cylinder diesel engine from the Scorpio SUV they introduced in India just recently. Power ratings are expected to be in between 145 to 150 horsepower and approximately 300 foot-pounds of torque. Mahindra developed the ‘mHawk’ with the help of Bosch and AVL to be released in the US later.

Along with a modified ‘mHawk’, the vehicles will have a standard six-speed automatic transmission, as well as a floor mounted console shifter. They will also be equipped with steering wheel mounted paddles so that the gearbox can be manually shifted.

Dr. Jaura is not new to the design of hybrid technology. He used to be Ford’s Head of Vehicle Engineering for the Escape Hybrid Platform before he transferred to Mahindra years later.

A lot has been said about the Mahindra trucks having clean diesel engines, but what do we really know about them? Both the TR20 and TR40 are going to be powered by turbocharged modern Common Rail diesel engines Mahindra developed, with the assistance of Bosch and AVL. Mahindra calls it CRDe technology and it uses the same principle as other common rail engines made and used by various auto manufacturers such as Ford, Toyota, GM, Mitsubishi and a lot more. To me, modern Common Rail diesels mean no heating time, less engine noise and lower emissions.

To repeat what we wrote in Mahindra TR20 and TR40 Features, these new-generation clean diesels are capable of emitting as little as 97% less sulfur emissions than their old-school counterparts and give off virtually no sooty particulates. Furthermore, they produce less than 30% of the greenhouse gases produced by gas engines per mile.

More good news for the environmentally concerned consumers, Mahindra is working on these clean burning diesels to be able to comply with the tough T2B5 standards for both particulate and Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions, especially for diesel engines. To control the NOx emissions, they will be using the urea-selective catalytic reduction (UCR) solution, which may require periodic urea refills. The urea refill will most likely coincide with the normal service interval. Mahindra offers a four-year, 60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty on these vehicles and although not yet 100% confirmed, John Perez, CEO of US importer Global Vehicles USA said in an interview by PickupTrucks.com that Mahindra may throw in free maintenance and urea refills during that four-year period. The Mahindra trucks will be serviced where it was purchased, which would be in any of the 400 dealers Global Vehicles is shooting for.

I don’t know about you, but this free maintenance thing, sounds promising. Mahindra could actually use this to their advantage since one of the biggest concerns of customers about them is their reliability. With the clean-burning engine and the possible free maintenance, I think Mahindra vehicles are really shaping up to be quite competitive in the US market. Global Vehicles USA may actually reach their 45,000-unit target for the first year of sales.

We just launched a forum for all of you that wish to discuss the Mahindra Trucks more openly and talk to people that own them. There is a general forum as well as forums that are specifically dedicated to the TR20, the TR40 and the Scorpio.

In the “Mahindra Truck Articles” portion of the forum you will see summaries of articles from Mahindra Truck Blog.

The name of the site is Mahindra Truck Forum, and you can get there by clicking on that link.

Hope you enjoy the forum!

A lot of people are aware of the advantages of diesel engines for towing and hauling, as well as in fuel economy. A while back, Ford, GM, Chrysler and Toyota announced their plans to produce trucks powered by modern diesel engines for their half-ton models. When Indian automaker Mahindra expressed their intent to sell diesel trucks in the United States, a great deal of people quickly dismissed them. However, the global economic crisis unexpectedly hit the automotive business. GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy, while the others postponed their initial plans of creating compact diesel trucks because of last year’s spike in diesel fuel prices. On the other hand, Mahindra stayed strong and pursued their interest in the US market.

Mahindra’s quest to penetrate the highly competitive truck industry will be no easy feat. After all, many people are wary of spending on a vehicle with a brand they don’t know with a parts and service network they’re unsure of the reliability. However, Mahindra is dead set on finding a unique place in the US market, one that has virtually no competitors and with a demand that the other auto manufacturers are unable to address.

The new Mahindra diesel trucks are said to be priced starting at 22,000 and 25,000, for the 2-door and 4-door models respectively. The 2-door alone is marked $6,000 higher than the Toyota Tacoma 2-door pickup, currently the bestselling mid-size pickup in America. Provided that diesel engines indeed cost more to produce, will the light duty pickup buyers be enticed enough to consider the Mahindra models with that price? The Mahindra pickups will be able to haul an extra 1,300 pounds, which is almost twice the capacity the Tacoma can manage. They will also have a 7.5-foot long bed giving customers more bed space and have a payload capacity of 2,700 pounds. The Mahindra pickups will also be getting 20% more fuel economy than their light duty counterparts. But will these numbers be able to compensate for the significant price margin, enough to steal potential Tacoma/Frontier customers away?

Many people are reserving judgment until the actual vehicles become available next year. Although a lot of people think the idea of spending more than $20,000 for a truck made by a brand with no track record is quite scary and almost crazy. But Mahindra Tractors does have a pretty good reputation and people who have experienced owning or driving them will probably be the first buyers of Mahindra trucks. Hopefully, they will get good feedback and prove their reliability, so that Mahindra trucks can eventually become a huge player in the US market.

If like me, you’re one of those people keeping an eye out for Mahindra’s mid-size trucks scheduled to be released next year, you might want to sign up at Mahindra North America to get a chance to be one of the first few people to test drive the new and improved Mahindra diesel trucks.

A lot of people are holding out on buying new vehicles in anticipation of the release of these high quality clean and green pickups for an alternative to the vehicles available on the US market today so Mahindra’s taking names through their website to give interested people a chance to get some seat time before their 2-door and 4-door diesel pickups even hit the stores. Details are quite scarce and Mahindra didn’t specify which specific cities they will be parading at or when this event will happen but you may actually turn out to be one of the lucky ones so head on over to Mahindra North America to get your chance for an exclusive invitation from Mahindra now.