M&M working on new-generation Scorpio for foreign markets

MUMBAI: Mahindra & Mahindra's North American Technical Center is working on a new-generation Scorpio that is expected to hit the roads in 2020. This time around, the goal is to take it global.

The fourth-generation Scorpio will be built on an enhanced architecture of the current version, with a design and features to compete in developed markets. Mahindra's plan is to build an SUV and a pickup truck.

Mahindra has long been talking about entering the US market with a Scorpio-based small pickup truck. The product under development is not only critical to international operations chief Arvind Mathew's aim to drive into the developed markets of North America and Europe, but also to hold on its own in the increasingly competitive domestic SUV market.

In a recent interview to ET, Rajan Wadhera, president of the automotive division at Mahindra, confirmed the company had started work on the new-generation Scorpio, but declined to provide details.

The concept design of the project, codenamed 'Z101', is the responsibility of the North American Technical Center, said people in the know. Subsequent engineering and integration work will be handled out of the company's R&D centre, Mahindra Research Valley, in Chennai.

The Z101 will be the second major platform to be conceptualised at the North American Technical Center in Michigan, US. The first was U321, a project to build a premium utility vehicles that is expected to hit the road in the next 12 months and take on the Toyota Innova Crysta.

Wadhera had emphasised on greater usage of the R&D ecosystem in the US. "If a guy at 50 years with 20 patents to his name and having done 10 models in the last 20 years, two with Ford, three with GM and four with Chrysler, he would know product development obviously better than a graduate engineer with 10 years' experiences having done one product or two at best," he said.

In India, the Scorpio, despite witnessing competition from relatively newcomers like the Renault Duster and Hyundai Creta, has been consistently maintaining monthly volumes in excess of 3,000 units and contributing handsomely to the profitability of the company.

The fourth-generation Scorpio will be one of the first SUVs to sport a new design language at the company. During the interview, Wadhera said Mahindra vehicles of the future will spot the tough and rugged lineage, but "morph and evolve into an object of desire".

Mahindra is likely to closely integrate its various design houses, such as the one in Michigan, Pininfarina and MGRD in Italy, Ssangyong in South Korea and its in-house design studio IDAM.