This Is Why Mahindra Can Build Tiny Jeeps

I was at the Detroit unveiling event of the Mahindra Roxor yesterday, and, like many people, I was pretty delighted with what I saw. I was delighted because the Roxor isn’t like the usual plastic-bodied side-by-side little off-roader; it’s a real... Jeep. There’s no other way to put it. The Roxor is an old-school Jeep. Which may lead you to wonder: how can Mahindra build a Jeep? Can’t only Jeep build Jeeps?

The question isn’t really quite as simple as that, of course. Really, the Roxor isn’t exactly a Jeep, it’s a (admittedly heavily modified) Mahindra Thar, which is, yes, a license-built Jeep. And that’s pretty much exactly why Mahindra can build the iconic Jeep without worry—they’ve had a license to do so since 1947.

Mahindra was one of the earliest—1947, remember—Jeep licensee, and has had agreements with every one of the many companies that have been stewards of the Jeep brand over history: Willys, Kaiser, American Motors, Renault, Chrysler, Daimler, the Cerberus group, and now Fiat. That’s insane.

It also means that technically, Mahindra has had the rights to the Jeep design for decades longer than the current owner, Fiat Chrysler, has.

The point of all this is to say, yes, Mahindra can damn well build a Jeep if they want to.

Now, it’s notable that the Roxor does not have Jeep’s jealously-guarded trademark seven-slot grille, even though the Thar in India and other markets uses it. That grille has become so iconic and associated with Jeep that it is now Jeep’s logo, even if, technically, that was a Ford design.

Jeep really, really doesn’t want anyone else using that seven-slot design in America, which is why Mahindra agreed, in 2009, to not use it for any possible American-market vehicles. That’s why the Roxor uses what Mahindra calls a ‘four-and-a-half’ slot grille.

It’s worth noting that Mahindra did not contact FCA/Jeep at all regarding their bringing over what is, essentially, a non-highway approved version of their most iconic car. To put this in some sort of perspective, it’d be sort of like if Nissan decided to use their long-dormant Austin license to build new, non-street legal original Minis. BMW, who now owns the Mini brand, could possibly find that troubling, right?

We reached out to see if FCA had any opinion on this, and they just told us “no comment.”

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Soure:https://jalopnik.com/this-is-why-mahindra-can-build-tiny-jeeps-1823472625