Isuzu Motors India Ltd today launched the Sports Utility Vehicle MU-7 assembled at Hindustan Motors’ plant near Chennai.
Takashi Kikuchi, Managing Director, Isuzu Motors India, said the roll out marks the start of Isuzu’s commercial production in India under a contract manufacturing agreement with HM.
The agreement provides for producing the SUV and a pick-up, the one-tonne payload D-Max, at HM’s Thiruvallur factory, to the north of Chennai. The unit will produce about 5,000 vehicles annually.
The HM plant will continue to produce the MU-7 and the D-Max even after Isuzu’s own facility in Andhra Pradesh goes on stream, Kikuchi said.
Isuzu’s greenfield plant is coming up in Sri City, about 60 km north of Chennai. It has committed to invest Rs 3,000 crore in the facility to produce LCVs. The plant, coming up on a 107-acre facility, can make 120,000 units a year and will be ready in 2016. The models to be produced there are yet to be announced.
Shigeru Wakabayashi, Executive Vice-President, Marketing, said the MU-7 will cost around Rs 22 lakh and will be available in BS-III and BS-IV versions. There are eight dealer outlets now in South India and there will be over 60 dealers in the next two years.
balaji.ar@thehindu.co.in