Mahindra targets global pickup niches after exit-driven cleanup

Mahindra and Mahindra is turning back toward global markets, this time betting on lifestyle pickup trucks after spending five years shutting down loss-making foreign subsidiaries. The Anish Shah-led automaker wants to build a position in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand using vehicles that blend SUV and pickup characteristics, executives said Saturday.

The push marks a strategic shift. Between FY 2021 and FY 2026, Mahindra exited subsidiaries and joint ventures in Japan, Finland and Sri Lanka, shedding companies that collectively lost about ₹313 crore a year – roughly 2.2% of the consolidated profit of ₹14,073 crore as of March 31, 2025. Mint reported on March 4 that those exits narrowed the list of loss-making foreign units and let the company reset its international business around profitable operations.

Now Mahindra wants to grow abroad without acquisitions or new joint ventures. Its main weapon is a pickup segment that remains tiny in India – estimated at 4,000-5,000 units a year – but is massive in markets like the U.S. and Australia. Toyota and Isuzu are the only serious competitors in the domestic lifestyle-pickup space today.

“We had seen customers who want the pickup character, who want the SUV character, and who want the 4x4 character. If you put all of them together, Mahindra has the deep pickup expertise, and it has the deep SUV expertise,” Velusamy R., president of automotive business at Mahindra and Mahindra, told reporters Saturday.

The company already operates a pickup assembly plant in South Africa with capacity of 1,000 vehicles a month. Bloomberg reported in April that Mahindra is exploring an expansion of those South African operations as Chinese automakers gain share in the market and local regulators consider higher tariffs on imported vehicles.