Mahindra has celebrated its 20th anniversary in South Africa early with the completion of the 20 000th locally made Pik Up. Picture: Mahindra
Less than two months before its 20th anniversary market celebration, Mahindra South Africa has announced the completion of the 20 000th locally produced Pik Up at its Durban plant in KwaZulu-Natal.
Produced six years after the facility’s opening, the 20 000th Pik-Up, a white single cab S6 4×4, will seemingly be preserved as opposed to being put on-sale.
In announcing the milestone, Mahindra South Africa CEO, Rajesh Gupta, said the brand is ready for growth and as such, the next step involving the construction of a new assembly facility it anticipates will be finished by June next year.
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According to both Gupta and Mahindra’s local production partner, Investment Holdings Group, the new facility will see the plant cover a total of 14 000 m2 and result in Mahindra’s investment into South Africa re-doubling. At present, no pricing figures related to the investment’s worth are known.
“The Mahindra assembly facility could rightfully be described as the largest and most complex of its kind on the African continent if one considers single-brand facilities that produce a consistent flow of vehicles every month,” Gupta said in a joint statement.
“South Africa’s role as our second home outside of India was emphasised last year when Mahindra unveiled its new global Pik Up concept in South Africa to a global audience.
“Mahindra South Africa and its assembly facility will become an important part of the global Pik Up plans, especially with the announcement that Mahindra will continue to produce the current range of bakkies alongside the new model, “Gupta concluded.
Set to become a reality next year followed by the commencing of sales in 2026, the mentioned new bakkie debuted as the concept Global Pik Up at Mahindra’s Independence Day celebrations in Cape Town last year.
An event celebrated annually involving new or future products being showcased in former Commonwealth nations, the production-ready concept, known internally as Z121 the most recent in February alleged will be called Scorpio X once assembly starts, will form part of an eventual three-tier product range positioned above the Bolero and the current Pik Up.
Although bearing a resemblance to the Scorpio-N, the Global Pik-Up will ride on a new body-on-frame platform and derive motivation from the 2.2-litre mHawk turbodiesel engine that will seemingly be upgraded by the time of its arrival.
Admitting that the unit has the ability to produce up to 450 Nm, President for Product Development and Technology, R Velusamy, told Australia’s carexpert.com.au that Mahindra won’t be drawn into producing a Ford Ranger Raptor-rival or even an alternative to the Toyota Hilux GR Sport at best.
“We do not get into those specialised variants like Raptors and we want to play into the value segments, or the high volume segments anyway,” Velusamy said.
For the time being, plans on producing the Global Pik Up locally remain unknown based on the production model still not being ready.
As such, the current Pik Up prevails for the foreseeable with clearer details about its future only expected next year.
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