Mahindra unveils off-roader Roxor for US market, based on Thar

Mahindra & Mahindra has unveiled an all-new off-road only vehicle for the United States - the Roxor, made at Mahindra's new manufacturing facility at Auburn Hills near Detroit, Michigan. It will be available soon at a relatively low-end starting price of about $15,000 (Rs10 lakh).

Mahindra Roxr

The Mahindra Roxor will be sold under the Mahindra North America or 'MANA' label. It is essentially based on the Mahindra Thar but with changes and new features including a new front end to avoid conflict of interest with the Jeep brand's design language in the United States.

The Roxor will also be a more basic vehicle as compared to the Thar with no doors and no hard top roof or windscreen. The Mahindra Roxor will essentially be targeted at the side-by-side off road vehicle buyers in the United States.

The Roxor will also feature a more barebones interior with a steel dashboard instead of the plastic dashboard in the Thar. The Roxor will be available with a bunch of accessories including heavy duty winches, light bars, off-road wheels, etc.

The Roxor also features simple seats up front and a heavy duty grab handle for the passenger side mounted on the dashboard. The dashboard also features a simple gauge cluster mounted in the middle while the central console has America's favourite in car feature - cup holders.

In terms of mechanicals, the Mahindra Roxor features a 2.5-litre, 4-cylinder turbo diesel engine. The engine puts out a modest 62 bhp. The Roxor of course is left hand drive as is the norm in the United States and features a manual gearbox along with a traditional manual four-wheel-drive shifter.

The Roxor is a CKD (completely knocked down) product in the United States with the kit actually supplied from India. About 50 per cent of the vehicle is unique to the Roxor as compared to the Thar and will feature a range of paint and wrap options. In fact, the Roxor will be highly customisable and will offer a staggering 900 colour and wrap options.

The Roxor will be available in the near future with a range of customised seats. The customisation will be done in a brand new paint area inside the Auburn Hills manufacturing facility, which has created 300 jobs in the Detroit area. Mahindra has also invested $230 million in the new facility and in the MANA operations.

The vehicles will not be sold through Mahindra's already established tractor dealerships but will instead be sold through Powersport dealers.