Mahindra unveils Scorpio N based pick up concept
At its annual Independence Day extravaganza, this year held in South Africa, Mahindra unveiled the Scorpio N based pickup concept – the Global Pik Up. The Pik Up moniker is what Mahindra currently uses as the model name for its Scorpio Classic-based pickup truck in many international markets.
As
reported before, the concept will spawn a production pickup (codenamed Z121) and Mahindra says it will be underpinned by a ‘next-generation ladder-frame’ that will fare well in Global NCAP as well as Euro NCAP tests.
The Pik Up has been designed at Mahindra India Design Studio (MIDS) and, being a concept, there are many wild styling details. However, from the front, its connection to the Scorpio N is immediately apparent with the headlight, bonnet, fenders and front doors being very similar. The bumper is new with a massive bash-plate and tow hooks located at the lower end, and atop the bash-plate is a very aggressively styled popped-out grille. The concept also sports a snorkel for better water-wading capability and there’s a roof rack with a wide LED light bar at the front.
In profile, the Scorpio N is evident too, with the lower edges of the doors adorned with a cladding, although here they are more aggressive. The double-cab concept has a flying buttress design for the load bed, and the show car carries two spare tyres in the load area. While Mahindra has not yet released specifications, the wheelbase appears lengthened as would be required to accommodate a reasonably sized load area. And you can expect a dimension of 2850mm, which is the wheelbase of the four-door Thar.
The tailgate has the 'Mahindra' lettering embossed and the bumper has two tow hooks at the rear with the centre portion fashioned into a step to ease climbing into the load bed. The tail-lights carry a pixel-like design as we had seen before in the teasers that the company released.
As would be expected of a futuristic concept, Mahindra says the Global Pik Up will be packed with features and technology, and it spoke of a few like Level-2 ADAS capability, semi-automatic parking and 5G-based connectivity features. And as is the hot favourite in India, this pickup will have a sunroof.
Also on offer will be Trailer Sway Mitigation, an ESP feature that detects when a towed trailer begins to sway and uses ESP interventions of brake and throttle control to counteract it.
Mahindra says the new pickup will be powered by a Gen-II all-aluminium mHawk diesel engine, which will be mated to either a 6-speed manual or an Aisin-sourced 6-speed automatic. The Mahindra Global Pik Up will come with 4WD and shift-on-the-fly capability. There are also four drive modes on offer: Normal, Grass-Gravel-Snow, Mud-Rut and Sand.
Given its main markets of South Africa, Australia and India, the production version will come with the aforementioned diesel engine. However, in other markets like a few countries in the ASEAN region, where petrol pickups are also in demand, the Global Pik Up will offer the same petrol unit that will power the Scorpio N in 2025, the year the Global Pik Up is expected to arrive.
Mahindra’s Global Ambition
The unveiling of the Global Pik Up in South Africa is noteworthy as Mahindra has a rapidly growing presence in the region, which also loves pickups, or bakkies as they are locally called. Mahindra is thus signalling its international ambition with this unveiling and while we will see the production pickup on sale in India too, the model will be more significant globally in markets like Australia, for example, where Mahindra is also establishing a large presence and is a market that also favours pickups, or utes as they call them there.
Autocar
