Mahindra to launch premium Imperio pick-up in January 2016

The Imperio has been conceptualised and developed in-house by M&M’s engineers at the Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai.

By Autocar Pro News Desk

23 Dec 2015

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The Supro Maxitruck, a modern load carrier with 1-ton payload capacity, was launched on October 16. Till end-November it has sold 1,115 units.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has announced that it is soon launch a range of premium pick-ups. Christened Imperio, this new pick-up is expected to consolidate the company's leadership in the small commercial vehicle (SCV) space. Mahindra currently holds a 53% market share (YTD November 2015) in the LCV segment (with less than 3.5 tonnes load).

The Imperio has been conceptualised and developed in-house by M&M’s engineers at the Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai. The Imperio will be manufactured at Mahindra’s manufacturing facility at Chakan Plant, Pune and will be launched in early January 2016.

M&M says the Imperio promises to provide a high-end product experience in its segment of small commercial vehicles. This pick-up is designed to cater to the needs of small and medium businesses (SMEs) while offering style, performance and driving comfort.

Speaking about the launch, Pravin Shah, president and chief executive (Automotive), M&M, said: “Being a customer-centric organisation, we identify the need gaps among consumers which have gone into the designing of the Imperio which will meet the evolving needs of the customer. Since we are the market leader in the small commercial vehicle segment, I am sure that with the addition of the Imperio we will consolidate our leadership in the commercial vehicle space even more”.

It is likely that the upcoming Imperio has been built on the Supro platform. On October 16, 2016, M&M had launched the Supro in SCV and van variants. The Supro, which is also built at the Chakan plant, has till end-November 2015 sold a total of 1,115 units.

Built at the Chakan plant, the Supro platform, according to M&M, has undergone rigorous and full test cycle runs and has been validated on all performance, safety and reliability parameters.

Whil the medium and heavy commercial vehicle market has seen consistent growth for the past year, small commercial vehicles and light commercial vehicles in India have been witnessing a slowdown in sales since the past two years. In the April-November 2015 period, a total of 243,306 units have been sold (comprising both passenger carriers and goods carriers), recording a decline of 4.56%.

Also read: Commercial vehicles sales up 8.56% in November