Mahindra recently held its global event called Futurescape in Cape Town, where the company revealed its ambitious plans to increase its global presence.
- The event took place at Lourensford Estate in Somerset West, South Africa, which is Mahindra’s second-largest market outside of India. It attracted journalists, celebrities, and senior executives from Mahindra.
- One of the major highlights of the event was the unveiling of Mahindra’s new Global Concept Pik Up, codenamed Z121. The concept bakkie (pickup truck) aims to complement Mahindra’s existing Bolero and Pik Up ranges, which are assembled in Durban.
- Veejay Nakra, President for the Automotive Division of Mahindra, stated that approximately 85% of the concept bakkie will make it to production. The final production model is expected to have a more conventional spare wheel setup instead of the two spare wheels showcased in the concept.
- The Global Concept Pik Up will be a ground-up development, featuring a strengthened chassis, custom suspension, a new wheelbase, revised towing capacity, and track widths.
- Mahindra anticipates powering the concept bakkie with the new generation 2.2-litre MHawk engine, delivering 129kW and 400Nm of torque. It will likely be available with both manual and automatic transmissions.
- The concept interior showcased a large touchscreen infotainment system, an analogue instrument cluster, and a Harmon/Kardon sound system developed specifically for the Pik Up. The vehicle is expected to offer level-2 semi-autonomous features, including adaptive cruise control, collision-warning braking, lane departure and lane centring tech, and automatic parking.