Aged products and an extremely complicated assembly process were cited as the reasons for Mahindra to close down its car sales division in Brazil.
After several futile attempts to gain momentum, Mahindra has decided to close down its Brazilian operations as the company’s sales agent Bramont closed its facilities in the Latin American nation seven years after first entering the market. The aged products and a complicated assembly process made it unviable to retail the vehicles in the country anymore while the brand already had limited takers. The Indian utility vehicle maker managed to retail only 4000 units in the past seven years despite having a 5000 units per year production capacity.
Bramont was responsible for importing, assembling and selling Mahindra offerings in Brazil. The company sold the Scorpio SUV re-christened as the MOV (Mahindra Off-Roading Vehicle) and also the Scorpio pick-up in the country. The MOV sold though was the last generation Scorpio that came equipped with the 2.6-litre Euro V compliant diesel engine, leather upholstery, dual airbags, ABS, four-wheel drive and an extremely dated boxy design which did not go down well in the relatively advanced Brazilian market.
Imported as Knocked Down (KD) kits from Mahindra’s facility in India to Pouso Alegre in Brazil, the assembly process was extremely tedious as the SUV was put together in different assembly plants spread across the state of Minas Gerais. The bodies were first welded together and painted and were then sent to the Bramont plant in Manaus to get the axles, engine and transmission fitted. Finally, the finished models were sent to Uberlândia also in Minas Gerais for distribution to dealers. This made the entire logistics expensive and complex while the vehicles itself was aged.
This does come as disappointing since Brazil is one of the fastest growing automotive markets in the world and Mahindra had loads of potential to work around in the long term. Nonetheless, the automaker will continue with its tractor operations in the country that remains untouched and is actually doing consistently good numbers.
Source – Just-Auto.com
