Report: Mahindra Diesel Pickup Launch in U.S. Indefinitely Delayed

To those following the saga of Mahindra's diesel pickups, it probably comes as no surprise that the Indian-built small truck's December introduction in the U.S. isn't going to happen as planned.

Anand Mahindra, Mahindra's managing director, said last week the company now has "no date" for its U.S. launch, according to a report by The Associated Press.

"We're still interested in getting into the U.S.," Mahindra said. But Mahindra wouldn't comment on when its vehicles would come here because of pending litigation and arbitration with its U.S. distributor, Global Vehicles USA.

"We don't want to turn this into a war of words," Mahindra said.

John Perez, CEO of GV USA, says Mahindra delayed government certification to improperly terminate .

"The bottom line here is Mahindra now believes this is a huge project. They want us out of the way so they can go direct and save the money we were going to make," Perez said Friday.

Repeated delays have become the norm for Mahindra and GV. Originally, the trucks were scheduled to go on sale in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2009. That date was later pushed back to December 2009. Then, in August of last year, Goenka promised the trucks would be on sale by before pushing the date to the spring and later .

[Source: The Asssociated Press]