South Korea just got themselves a new pickup truck when SsangYong released their new Korando Sports to the market. Based off of their SUT 1 concept that debuted at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, SsangYong is calling the Korando Sports an LUV – Leisure Utility Vehicle.

What is interesting though is the fact that the parent company to SsangYong, Mahindra, is hoping to sell vehicles in the United States by 2016. This all after a blundered entrance by Mahindra into America’s market back in 2010. Regardless, Mahindra wants a truck in the US and we have good reason to believe that SsangYong’s Korando Sports will be the chosen one.

The Korando Sports is powered by a 2.0L four-cylinder engine produced by SsangYong. It has 155-hp and 265 lb-ft of torque and allows the truck to have a towing capacity of 4,400-lbs. According to a mixed Korean cycle, the Korando Sports gets 36-mpg. It’ll be available in both rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive options.

It’s widely believed that SsangYong will have this truck out in the European market by the end of this year. When it’ll make its way to America on the other hand, is the more interesting question.

GALLERY: SsangYong Korando Sports

[Source: 3D Car Posts]

While Hyundai and Kia are the best known Korean automakers,  Ssangyong, still exists in the rest of the world, and the automaker (who has never sold vehicles in North America) has some very ambitious goals for the near future.

Ssangyong wants to sell 160,000 vehicles worldwide by 2013, and hopes to raise that number to 300,000 by 2016. Accompanying the sales targets will be a whole range of both facelifted and fully re-designed vehicles. Although Ssangyong released a series of goals that are little more than marketing fluff, the key to their progress seems to be leveraging their tie-up with Indian corporate whale Mahindra, which has the financial resources to help Ssangyong make something of itself.

Based on some of their past works (like the Rexton and Rodius) we think that these guys have a long way to go.

Is America ready for another strange-sounding offshore nameplate? That answer seems irrelevant in light of Ssangyong’s new plans to introduce their vehicles in America by 2016, with a goal to be in the marketplace by 2013.

Ssangyong has a history of making fairly rugged SUVs that have been sold in global markets. While their previous generation of light trucks benefited from Mercedes-Benz’s engineering expertise, their most recent vehicles, including the Rodius minivan, were considered to be some of the ugliest cars of all time.

Parent company Mahindra hopes that Ssangyong can move 20,000 cars in the United States, but with Mahindra’s failed experiment at importing pickups into the United States still looming in the background, dealers who previously agreed to become Mahindra franchisees are on guard, with one telling Automotive News that he fears the Ssangyong plans may just be a trojan horse for the eventual importation of Mahindra trucks.

Yet another bump on the increasingly rough road for the Mahindra pickup has emerged,this time in the form of fuel economy figures published by the Environmental Protection Agency.

According to the EPA, the four-wheel drive version of the TR40 with the automatic transmission and four-cylinder diesel; in four-door form, has been rated at just 19 miles per gallon in the city; 21 on the open road. By contrast the hoary old Ford Ranger, gets 14 mpg in the city, 18 on the highway, with it’s prosaic 4-liter V-6. It’s also rated at the same 5000 lb towing capacity as the TR40.

As you look at other pickups, the TR40s mileage is even less impressive – Ford’s full-size F-150 for example, equipped with the new 3.7-liter V-6; gets 16 mpg in the city, 23 on the highway.

The EPA findings come as another blow to the already well-publicized Mahindra/Global Vehicles fiasco. GV has stated for months, that the trucks would get around 30 mpg and fuel economy has been a major aspect of the US marketing campaign. Now with figures released that fail to measure up, the credibility of Global Vehicles is in doubt, and the truck’s chances for success are hampered.

Nevertheless, Global CEO John Perez said in a recent statement. “good fuel economy will be an important part of the truck’s appeal, and we’re eager to see the fuel economy for all of the models, especially the two-door, two-wheel-drive model, which Mahindra told us to expect would achieve close to 30 mpg.”

Perhaps he’s referring to Imperial miles per gallon instead of US measurements –  even still, 21 mpg US results in 25 imperial miles per gallon and the Mahindra truck would have to get at least 25 mpg US on the highway to achieve  the hallowed 30 mpg (Imperial); there’s also the factor of variables such as climate and different testing conditions to consider.

The MPG fiasco, is just another aspect of this whole thing which smacks of complete disorganization and chaos. For over two years, US buyers have been promised this truck and now with Mahindra and GV tied up in court battles and some 350 dealers having forked out the money for a franchise, so far with nothing in return, things are looking increasingly bleak.

The only potential benefit, is that with Ford; GM and Dodge pulling out of the small truck market, there’s potential room for a few new competitors; whether the TR40 will actually become one of those, still remains to be seen.

[Source: Autoblog]

It has styled some of the most memorable cars in history, including scores of Ferraris, but more recently the famed design house Pininfarina, has fallen on hard times. It’s been up for sale for several months, though now, might have a potential buyer, in the shape of Bejing Automotive Industry Corp (BAIC).

Fueling the speculation that BAIC is in the process of a serious bid for Pininfarina, are quotes from a Chinese website (ee0.com) which said that an unnamed BAIC executive recently returned from Italy where he was in discussion with Pininfarina regarding collaboration on a new car based on the Saab 9-3.

BAIC currently owns the tooling, intellectual property and powertrain technology from the current Saab 9-3, which it purchased from General Motors and is already working on several new cars based on this platform, a new Pininfarina styled 9-3 could be one of them. If such a car does indeed materialize, it will probably make its debut at the 2011 Beijing Auto Show.

However, besides BAIC, that same media website (eeo.com), also reported that other Chinese firms, Anhui Jiangling and Brilliance, have also expressed interest in acquiring Pininfarina, along with India’s Mahindra and Canada’s Magna International. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

[Source: Inside Line]

India’s Mahindra will buy troubled Korean carmaker Ssangyong for $463 million, with Mahindra gaining a 70% stake in the company. The deal is expected to conclude in March, 2011.

“Together with its financial capability, Mahindra offers competence in sourcing and marketing strategy while Ssangyong has strong capabilities in technology,” Mahindra President Pawan Goenka said in the statement. “We are committed to leveraging the combined synergies by investing in a new Ssangyong product portfolio to gain momentum in global markets.”

Ssangyong, a maker of SUVs, trucks and minivans, faced a sales crunch when those segments fell out of favor with consumers during the economic crisis. Ssangyong’s most recent products, namely the Rodius, have been pilloried in the press for their bizarre designs, which some have labeled as the world’s ugliest cars.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]

Beleaguered Indian truck manufacturer Mahindra has had their American launch delayed indefinitely, thanks to a series of legal battles between Mahindra and vehicle importer Global Vehicle Sales USA.

Global Vehicles argues that Mahindra wrongfully terminated the contract between the two companies. “The bottom line here is Mahindra now believes this is a huge project. They want us out of the way so they can go direct and save the money we were going to make,” Global Vehicles chief executive John Perez told the AP on Friday.

Mahindra’s managing director, Anand Mahindra said that the company has “no date” for entering the U.S.

[Source: Associated Press]

In the latest installment of the Mahindra/Global Vehicles Soap Opera, it appears that the first order for U.S. spec trucks, now called Pik-Ups has been placed, according to a statement released by GV.

Mahindra and Global have been battling each other in court, regarding a contract clause which stated that the former could wash its hands clean of the deal if the trucks didn’t meet U.S. EPA emissions certification. Now that they have, Mahindra still wants to rescind the contract between it and GV, but there’s evidence to suggest that the company’s argument won’t hold up in court, partly because Mahindra submitted its EPA paperwork a number of days after the June 11 deadline passed and also the fact that GV has already invested considerable effort and $100 million in setting up a distribution network for the trucks in the U.S. As a result of all this, it looks likely that Global Vehicles will retain exclusive rights to sell the trucks.

Said GV’s CEO John Perez “We trusted Mahindra when they said they wanted to cap their losses if the vehicle couldn’t be sold here. We patiently waited and accommodated Mahindra through years of delays and kept an extremely powerful distribution network intact while the factory worked through the complicated task of meeting U.S. emissions standards. We did this because we believed we were all working toward the same goals. Now Mahindra is trying to change the rules. We delivered our end of the contract, and we’re ready to get down to business.”

Although the GV/Mahindra saga is far from over, the announcement of a $35 million initial purchase order by GV, suggests that after a long period of virtual stalemate, things appear to be finally moving forward.

Rumors have been circulating for some time, but now Global Vehicles CEO John Perez has come out and said it - Mahindra delayed EPA certification of its TR series pickup so it could end the agreement with GV as the official US importer.

Perez says that the original contract between Mahindra and GV contained a sunset clause which stated that should the trucks not be be ready for sale in the U.S. within three years – people could just walk away and Mahindra would not be subjected to any lawsuits.

Now that clause has come to mean something slightly different: GV, having invested several million dollars up front to secure a distribution network for the trucks is now out in the cold and Mahindra is washing its hands clean, leaving angry customers and considerable uncertainty over the future of the pickups in the U.S. market.

At present, GV is in the midst of a lawsuit against Mahindra, over delays of the vehicle’s introduction – which stems back to a falling out between the two parties. Mahindra wanted GV to make adjustments to the original dealer program, but GV refused. Mahindra then essentially ceased communication with the U.S. importer and delayed the vehicle’s introduction, leading to GV filing a lawsuit.

Now, with Mahindra having voided GV’s contract and statements that  it engineered that delay, things have gone from bad to worse. As a result, there appears to be no solution for importing the trucks to the U.S. at present and as the lawsuit is dragged through the U.S. legal system – those dealers that signed on wonder if they’ll ever get their trucks. Stay tuned for further developments.

[Source: PickupTrucks.com]

What’s next? Well, in the ongoing saga of Mahindra’s supposedly U.S. bound pickup, who knows? The latest is an apparent termination of the agreement between the Indian vehicle maker and Global Vehicles Inc., the company it had tasked with importing its HR series two and four-door pickups to the US.  According to an official press release on Mahindra’s US website “the agreement dated 26th September 2006, between Mahindra and GV” has been “terminated.”

However, according to Global Vehicles, things remain very much “business as usual.”  But due to repeated delays in introducing the vehicle, after GV spent some $35 million in setting up a U.S. distribution network , the Georgia based company has filed a lawsuit against Mahindra. It also says that the Indian manufacturer’s decision to terminate the agreement is “invalid under applicable laws of the United States and the State of Georgia, something which Mahindra continues to disregard.”

This comes hot on the heels of the trucks finally being granted EPA certification. Mahindra says that a Stateside launch is still on track for December 2010, but given how things have panned out so far, you can bet they’ll be a few more twist and turns in the coming months.

[Source: Motor Trend]