ROXOR Made to Target Side-by-Side Market
Mahindra recently introduced ROXOR, a new, off-road vehicle for consumers in the North American market. Mahindra was licensed to build Willys vehicles for the Asia region more than 70 years ago. The ROXOR design demonstrates that Mahindra intends to stay true to its roots of industrial-grade construction and durability, according to the company.
“Mahindra’s 70-year automotive history has been forged by making authentic, rugged, purpose-driven vehicles; ROXOR is the embodiment of this history, and our brand,” said Pawan Goenka, Mahindra managing director.
ROXOR features a steel body on a boxed steel frame, a heavy-duty Mahindra turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine, and an automotive style five-speed manual transmission.
The vehicle is capped at 45 mph, and is estimated to get 32 miles per gallon.
“The ROXOR creates a new sub-segment in the side-by-side industry, and the response we’re getting from our newly appointed dealer body has been really outstanding,” said Rick Haas, Mahindra North America Automotive president and CEO. “We have a national dealer meeting scheduled on March 18-20, in San Antonio, Texas, where we’ll sit down and discuss the roll-out and future product offerings. We’re approaching our goal of 300 first wave dealers, and expect that we’ll reach this target between now and the end of the show.”
ROXOR was conceived, designed, engineered and is being produced in Metro Detroit by Mahindra Automotive North America (MANA). MANA is part of the $19B Mahindra Group and recently opened a new NA Automotive headquarters and manufacturing center in Auburn Hills, Michigan. MANA’s new operation is the central component of the 400,000 square foot footprint Mahindra now has in Metro Detroit, and is the first OEM manufacturing/assembly facility to open operations in Southeast Michigan in over 25 years, according to the company.
Mahindra Automotive North America has, to date, created 300 new jobs and invested over $230 million into Southeast Michigan, according to the company. As both ROXOR production and other programs ramp up, Mahindra anticipates creating an additional 400 jobs and investing another $600 million in the local economy by 2020.
