Mahindra Roxor Cleared for Sale in the US After Winning Case Against FCA

In a thrilling turn of events, the Indian automaker Mahindra emerges victorious as a US court ruling allows it to produce and sell its off-road utility vehicle, the Roxor, in the United States.

This landmark decision comes after a fierce legal battle with Fiat Chrysler Automobile (FCA), which had accused Mahindra of copying design elements from its iconic Jeep for the Roxor back in 2019.

After the ban, Mahindra revised Roxor’s design in 2020 to comply with the law and start selling the Post-2020 Roxor in the US market. Fiat Chrysler then again sought a ban on the redesigned vehicle but the request was rejected by US District Judge Gershwin Drain in Detroit who noted that the post-2020 Roxor did not infringe Fiat’s trademark rights, according to Reuters.

However, last year, the 6th US Circuit Court overturned the decision and asked District Judge Gershwin Drain to reconsider if Mahindra’s new design should keep a “safe distance” from the design of Fiat’s vehicle since the automaker was a “known infringer”, the report added.

This week, the Detroit court ruled in the favour of Mahindra and underlined that the safe-distance rule should not apply in this case, as per the report.

In a regulatory filing, Mahindra has said, “The Eastern District Court of Michigan has on July 19, 2023, issued its opinion and order on FCA’s renewed motion to enjoin the Post-2020 Roxor and has based on its analysis, declined to apply the safe distance-rule to this case as sought by FCA”, reported The Times of India.

In the US, Mahindra Roxor is offered in two variants – base model and all-weather model. The starting price of the base model is $20,599 while that of the all-weather model is $28,739. Both are powered by a 2.5-litre turbo diesel engine that produces 195 Nm of torque and 61 bhp of max power. The vehicle has a steel body and gets a towing capacity of approx. 1583 kg.

The Roxor can reach a top speed of 88 kmph and has maximum towing speed of 24 kmph. The engine is paired with a 5-speed manual transmission and a 2-speed manual transfer case.