Automaker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) this week launched a new compact truck, the Mahindra Gio. The Gio, priced between Rs 1.65 lakh and Rs 1.68 lakh, is India’s first four-wheel, half-a-tonne compact truck. It is powered by a 9.1 hp engine, and boasts of a fuel efficiency of 27 km/litre. The vehicle is manufactured at M&M’s Haridwar plant, where the company also makes its three-wheelers. Mr Pawan Goenka, the President of M&M’s automotive sector, told media-persons that the Gio was developed at a cost of only Rs 25 crore, as the company could draw from the available ‘engineering and tooling basket’. It will be positioned between three-wheelers and four-wheeler utility vehicles. In the first phase of production, the company will produce 20,000 units of the Gio annually, which can later be scaled up to 30,000 units.
M&M has already launched four vehicles in India this year, including the Xylo and a new version of the Scorpio. It currently has a 65 per cent market share in the utility vehicle segment.