By ALISTAIR KENNEDY
4 December 2006

For some time now the world’s automotive industry has been bracing itself for the arrival of vehicles produced by the emerging economic powerhouses of China and India. While there have been early indications that Chinese cars could begin arriving in Australia within the next year, it looks likely that the first vehicles will come from India, with a newly-formed Sydney import company planning to bring in a small range of Mahindra light commercial vehicles in the first half of 2007.

The company, TMI Pacific Pty Ltd, is a subsidiary of the Tynan Motor Group, a well-established Sydney automotive retailer.

Previous Indian imports, including Mahindra which was sold here briefly in the early 1990s, were unsuccessful largely due to poor quality and poor distribution and TMI Pacific’s Chairman, Michael Tynan, is under no illusions about the difficulties in breaking into the tough and competitive Australian market.

"We have one chance to be successful with Mahindra", said Mr Tynan. "We don’t want to make a big noise and then be forced to drop out of the market so we’ll be taking small, steady steps to begin with."

In line with this conservative approach Mahindra will open with a single model, a cab chassis and pickup variant of the Scorpio SUV called Pik-up. The timing of its arrival will be dependent upon its 2.5-litre common-rail diesel engine meeting the Euro 4 emission standard, required for all light diesel vehicles in Australia as of 1 January 2007. Mr Tynan expects this to be achieved in time for imports to begin during the second quarter of 2007.

Pik-up will come with the options of single or dual cab and 2WD or 4WD. It will initially be sold only in New South Wales, with a concentration in rural areas. Within a year of its arrival TMI Pacific expects to have expanded into the other eastern states and be in up to 50 multi-franchise dealerships.

At just over 5.1 metres in length the Pik-up is a big vehicle, and while it is not expected to seriously challenge similar-sized vehicles such as market leaders Toyota HiLux and Nissan Navara, TMI Pacific does expect to attract sales from conservative people who are looking for a tough and affordable working ute and are turned off by the growing trend towards sporty styling in such vehicles. The company is aiming to sell up to 1000 Pik-ups within its first year on the Australian market.

While the company would not specify approximate prices for the Pik-up, they did say that they would be "very competitive."

Interestingly Michael Tynan was Australia’s first Mazda dealer back in 1966 and he sees as much potential in Mahindra now as there was in Mazda 40 years ago. With such an astute automotive brain behind it, and reputedly with significantly improved production quality, Mahindra certainly has a better chance of success than on its previous Australian venture.

With other Indian and Chinese manufacturers casting a keen eye on the Australian market we certainly have some interesting times ahead.