The production version of the Mahindra Global Pik Up concept is tipped for a 2025 reveal and could potentially be assembled at a new facility right here in South Africa…
The Mahindra Pik Up is assembled for the local market at a facility in KwaZulu-Natal. However, the Indian automaker has plans to scale up to a new, larger plant towards the middle of 2025, leading to speculation that it could also assemble the production version of the Mahindra Global Pik Up concept here in South Africa.
While Mahindra has yet to announce an official reveal date for the final version of its new “global” bakkie – which, you’ll remember, was previewed by a concept unwrapped right here in Mzansi back in August 2023 – we believe the covers will come off at some point in the 2nd half of 2025.
Interestingly, that’s not long after Mahindra SA expects its new assembly facility to come online. As a reminder, AIH Logistics (which is part of the AIH Group, headed by former BMW Plant Rosslyn general manager Corrie Kotze) has served as an independent contract assembler for Mahindra SA since 2018, bolting together the current Pik Up from semi-knocked down (SKD) kits at a plant in the Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in KZN.
Mahindra will again rely on the AIH Group’s assembly expertise as it enters what it describes as “the next phase of its journey” in South Africa, which involves the construction of a “brand-new assembly facility” expected to cover some 14 000 m2. This will increase Mahindra’s local assembly capacity, with the automaker saying it will “redouble” its investment in South Africa, its biggest market outside of India.
Construction of the new assembly facility – which will likewise be situated in the Dube TradePort SEZ and run by the AIH Group (incidentally, the company also appointed to carry out Navara Warrior conversions for Nissan SA) – is expected to be completed by June 2025. At that point, Mahindra says it will “expand its staff complement to meet the growing production volumes”.
So, what makes us think the upcoming new bakkie is in line be assembled locally, alongside the current Pik Up (which will, for the record, soldier on after receiving an update in early 2025)? Well, Rajesh Gupta, CEO of Mahindra South Africa, dropped a subtle hint in August 2024, when the current facility crossed the 20 000-unit assembly mark.
“South Africa’s role as our 2nd home outside of India was emphasised last year [2023] when Mahindra unveiled its new global Pik Up concept in South Africa to a global audience. Mahindra South Africa and its assembly facility will become an important part of the global Pik Up plans, especially with the announcement that Mahindra will continue to produce the current range of bakkies alongside the new model,” Gupta said at the time.
Interestingly, the Pik Up is currently assembled locally on a SKD basis, which means each vehicle kit arrives from India as a set of partially assembled parts. However, it’s our understanding that Mahindra SA is keen to graduate to a completely knocked down (CDK) status at its upcoming larger facility, which would require a more specialised manufacturing process and allow for a higher percentage of local content, too.
So, what do we know about Mahindra’s upcoming new bakkie, which bears an internal project code of Z121 and could wear the “Scorpio X” badge (based on a trademark application in India)? Well, it will ride on a lengthened version of the Scorpio N’s ladder-frame platform, while also likely inheriting a version of that SUV’s 2.2-litre, 4-cylinder turbodiesel engine.
Mahindra looks to be aiming high with its new model as it seeks to tap into the leisure bakkie market. As such, it will likely pitch the newcomer against segment leaders such as the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max – each of which, of course, is produced right here in South Africa.
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