Mahindra & Mahindra is going back to its roots. Having acquired the licence to sell vehicles under the Willys Jeep brand decades ago, the Indian carmaker is now entering the United States by launching the Thar in the side x side powersports segment. Rechristened as Roxor, the off-roader will be assembled in the USA using CKD kits, imported from India.
The Roxor looks the part of a hardcore off-roader with its stripped down and rugged appearance. Look closely and you’ll notice that it gets a four and a half slot grille rather than the 7-slot grille that is synonymous with the Jeep brand, for legal reasons. It is built on a boxed steel frame chassis and comes with a soft top with towing capacity of 3628kg; you also get a winch and halogen headlamps.
The Roxor is powered by a 2.5-litre 4-cylinder turbo diesel engine that cranks out 62bhp and 195Nm of torque. The engine is coupled to a 5-speed manual transmission and it is also equipped with a low ratio transfer case. It has a high ground clearance of 228.6mm and a wheelbase of just 2438.4mm, for hardcore off-roading. The Roxor has a top speed of 75kmph.
The president and CEO of Mahindra Automotive North America, Rick Haas, said, “The Roxor creates a new sub-segment in the Side x Side industry and the response we are getting from our newly appointed dealer body has been really outstanding. We have a National Dealer Meeting scheduled on March 18-20th, in San Antonio, Texas, where we will sit down and discuss the roll-out and future product offerings. We are approaching our goal of 300 “1st wave” dealers and expect that we will reach this target between now and the end of the show.”