We'd heard in the past India's Mahindra & Mahindra is looking to expand beyond Jeep knock-offs and start leveraging their know-how as one of the world's largest suppliers of tractors in order to get themselves into the US pickup market. According to Automotive News, Pawan Goenka, president of Mahindra's automotive unit, is repeating that party line, and now he's even giving some sales numbers. Goenka claims he would be happy with annual sales of between 20,000 and 25,000 units for a truck sold stateside — but he claims the most important result will be a smooth and successful launch regardless of sales numbers. But key questions still remain — like whether they'd be built in the United States or imported here. Automotive News has more after the jump:
Goenka said Mahindra will decide "relatively soon" whether to import the pickup or build it from knockdown kits in the United States. He ruled out building it in Mexico.
Mahindra, of Mumbai, India, has selected about 200 dealers for the launch, Goenka said. The trucks are expected to be available in the next 15 months. The U.S. distributor is Global Vehicles USA Inc., of Alpharetta, Ga.
The truck will have a diesel engine that meets the strictest emissions standards, Goenka said.
Well, that's good. Wait a second, what does "strictest emissions standards" mean anyway? Are those Indian emissions standards or US emissions standards? Whatever — as long as we get the Mahindra Scorpio like the one pictured up top, we couldn't care less what's coming out the tailpipe. But maybe that's just us.