Global reveal of a one-tonne ute vital to export ramp-up and NZ market aspiration is a week away, but some hints have come out of a high-up.

this eagle eye image of the new ute is from a teaser video released to media in india.

THE full-sized double cab utility Mahindra is soon to unveil could be a major element of its emergent drive into export markets, with New Zealand having priority.

India’s dominant producer of sports utilities has determined to primarily make electric passenger vehicles within that category, but has also committed to creating a one-tonne tray deck, a brand high-up has enforced.

Veejay Nakra, the global head of Mahindra’s automobiles division, won’t outright say if the ute will ultimately also engage with electric drive at some point.

He simply offers that any such development would have to make economic sense.

However, he also agrees utes are long-term sign-ups. Mahindra is effectively going to be an electric vehicle brand by 2030, which is conceivably well within the usual life span for a tray deck.

Mahindra is also holding back in depth detail about this challenger to the top-selling Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux until August 15 - India’s independence day.

Mahindra has a policy of making its biggest annual announcements then.

However, the make has already released a video that gives glimpses of what it is calling the ‘Global Pik Up Vision’.

Australian media report having seen, during their visit to Mahindra’s proving ground near Chennai several months ago, what seemed to have been camouflaged prototypes.

When meeting four Kiwi journalists on August 3, Nakra reinforced that the utility is considered vital to export strategies, to point of it being the first Mahindra that has been purpose-designed for total global availability.

Pik Up is a name already familiar to Kiwis, as a model designation attached to a small, rudimentary and rural-aimed decked vehicle.

From the glimpses offered in the sneak peek publicity (the image above), the new utility is a much different beast, though media in India are expecting some familiar styling cues.

Veejay Nakra, the global head of Mahindra’s automobiles division, ENJOYS a joke with NZ GUESTs.

One example being vertically stacked LED taillights, inspired by the Thar off-roader. The eagle-eye view shared here is the best single shot, and even that gives very little away.

Soon the world will know - and, from tenor of talk, the audience is set to be greater than Mahindra presently serves.

At the moment Mahindra only builds in right-hand drive and just five percent - 30,000 vehicles last year - are sold outside of India.

The ute is the first Mahindra that has been designed for left-hand-drive, an element that should considerably enhance the brand’s international reach, which aside from New Zealand presently touches Australia, parts of Asia and South America.

“The global pickup will be both RHD and LHD … it's a born global pickup,” Nakra said.

Mahindra has previously said the load-all will use the Scorpio four-wheel drive wagon, just launching in New Zealand now, as a starting point.

the mahindra scorpio appears set to be a donor for the ute. but to what extent is not clear.

However, Nakra says it’s no simple adaptation of that seven-seat wagon (above).

Rather, it will be as distinctly different to the donor as it is to that Pik Up small flatdeck (below), which aims as a low-cost and basic option.

There’s high probability the ute will have stronger load and towing capacities than Scorpio, which has a 2500kg braked towing capacity and 510kg payload. Whether it has the SUV’s 129kW/400Nm 2.2-litre turbocharged diesel engine is not clear.

However Nakra assures it will be up to competing with Hilux and Ranger.

He cannot say too much more at present, but next week’s announcement at an event in South Africa called Futurescape will clarify much.

“But let me put it this way. If you look at the kind of pickup offerings we've taken globally so far, they've largely been derivatives of what we've had for India as pickups and then obviously made that to be more global.

“But this is what I would call a born global pickup. It will be made based on markets like New Zealand and Australia, South Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia.

“Inputs from all these markets are going into what we will create as a ‘born global’ product as compared to the current Scorpio range of pickups that we own.”

With the lifecycle of a ute commonly up to 13 years, would it not seem logical to engineer this one for electric?

“I would not want to comment on that at the moment, but clearly the pickup that we are creating is on a new platform. It's on a different platform compared to the EV range of products that we've put out at the moment.”

Historically South Africa has been the biggest export market at present followed by south Asia region - Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh included.

But ultimately New Zealand and Australia have potential to be particularly crucial, notably for the pick up and electric sports utilities that are under development, for a number of reasons.

mahindra has been selling the pik up small utility for some time.

Nakra says Mahindra is fully aware of how strong ute-buying trends are here, even in the face of Clean Car legislation designed to quell that desire.

Switching attention to Australasia also seems timely for geopolitical reasons.

“We’re seeing a lot of headwinds in southern Asia and some headwinds in South Africa, with certain economic challenges. Australia and New Zealand will scale up now with these new products.”

But it won’t stop there. “I think to a very large extent of definition of a successful brand is also to have an international presence.”

Until the recent past, Mahindra has largely been a South Asia player “and we've had some presence in sub-Sahara Africa.”

However, it now has a new portfolio better suited to other places.

“ Australia and New Zealand put together are very important markets for us.”

He describes the front-drive petrol XUV700 released here in March and the Scorpio four-wheel-drive diesel as providing “a bridge as a part of our journey.”

“The whole aspiration is that the international operations will be a significant part of our business going forward.

“India is no longer a market where you can say that the products sold here are different from what they're sold in the world. So when you create products today, you create your products as global products.

“Of course, you need to meet specific safety and regulatory requirements in different countries. But from a design, technology, platform ….India has moved into creating global products and that's what we've done.”

In addition to showing off the ute, Futurscape will also focus on the new generation of Thar, the hard-out off-roader that in present state looks so much like the Jeep Wrangler that it has been subject of litigation by the American brand in the United States and in Australia.

New Thar is expected to take a less copycat styling approach and is also expected to show not only with its usual internal combustion engine choices but also in an electric form. It is being eyed up for New Zealand availability in 2024.

The writer attended this event as a guest of the distributor, with travel, accommodation, meals and a gift provided.