BL reported that following natural calamities in Thailand (floods) and subsequent disruption of operations at the Mitsubishi Motors unit there, the launch of its new SUV Pajero has been delayed in India.

The vehicle, which was supposed to be launched at the January 2012 Auto Expo, will now be launched in the first quarter of 2012. Kolkata-based Hindustan Motors assembles and markets Mitsubishi Motors Corporation's Pajero and other premium vehicles in the country.

The assembling is done at the Tiruvallur plant in Tamil Nadu. A senior company official said that the production at the Thailand unit had been hampered on account of floods thereby bringing to a grinding halt the assembling of the vehicle in the Tiruvallur plant.

Explaining the cause behind the delay in the launch of the vehicle, Mr Manoj Jha MD of Hindustan Motors in a press statement said that “We had decided to launch Pajero and other new variants from the HM stable at the Auto Expo 2012 in New Delhi. However, some dislocation of operations at Mitsubishi Motors Thailand facility due to the natural calamity and unexpected events compelled us to alter our plans.”

HM is likely to get approval from the Automotive Research Association of India for one of its passenger carrier variants soon. Mr Jha said that “Other commercial variants built on the Ambassador platform are also in the pipeline. Market research is being conducted across different States to elicit customer feedback.”

The company had recently launched a new variant for commercial applications and is hopeful of ramping up volumes through these variants.

(Sourced from BL)