Move over, Ford, Hyundai, Kia and others.
Mahindra has revealed that it will step up testing and tuning vehicles in Australia, for both local and international markets, as the brand expands its model portfolio to become a more effective and competitive global player.
Speaking to CarsGuide in India last month at its proving ground near Chennai, Mahindra’s Head of Asia Pacific international operations, Joydeep Moitra, confirmed that every model that the company has developed from the Jeep Wrangler-rivalling Thar 4WD that was released in India in late 2020 has been engineered with world markets in mind.
“Thorough testing is critical,” he said. “(Testing in Australia) sets the stage for Mahindra to strengthen its position as a global SUV maker.”
To that end, three examples of the Scorpio 4×4 wagon – the brand’s answer to the Toyota Prado and Ford Everest – had been undergoing both on- and off-road evaluations, racking up 120,000km in the process in the year leading up to its Australian launch in April.
Moitra added that testing on thousands of kilometres of gravel and dirt roads in temperatures that at times exceeded 45 degrees Celsius are the norm has and is improving the breed.
“These SUVs have performed exceptionally well,” he revealed. “This testing has ensured that the Scorpio is well-suited for the Australian market.”
Moitra also said that these mileages actually reflect “many more times” the distance and punishment that the production models endure in the hands of consumers, to ensure they behave as intended for many years.
In the Scorpio’s case, the Australian evaluation regime was part of an extensive global shakedown process that saw it exceed over one million kilometres of testing, which also took in India, Europe and North America.
Among other items, assessing noise and vibration elements, hot and cold weather behaviour, vehicle performance and control under load, braking and steering under duress, towing capacity limits, dirt-road driving stability, interior dust-sealing properties, and low-speed calibration and refinement also come into play.
Australia’s tough conditions have been on Mahindra’s radar for a number of years, with the Thar spotted as a camouflaged prototype on Queensland’s roads as far back as 2021, suggesting that a future iteration of the series is under consideration for our market.
As we reported earlier this month, the upcoming extended Thar five-door wagon, with a new-look nose to appease Jeep owners Stellantis, as well as increased space, refinement, safety and equipment levels, is also a likely starter for Australia.
Mahindra is also improving some of its existing models in Australia, as evidenced by the rough-and-ready Pik-Up dual-cab ute having undergone some torture treatment in this country last year.
In this case, several examples were subjected to 40,000km of outback testing in its latest automatic transmission guise, involving calibration, refinement and hot-weather endurance capabilities.
As CarsGuide reported recently, Mahindra built a world-class vehicle-development and proving ground facility outside of Chennai in the latter part of last decade, that includes a high-speed circuit bowl, expansive on-road as well as 4×4 off-road torture testing, crash-test safety engineering and a coming electric vehicle development centre.
Keyword: The Aussie influence grows: Mahindra Scorpio, XUV700 and other SUVs get tested locally