Mahindra & Mahindra, one of India’s largest automobile and tractor makers, announced the production plans for a new series of advanced tractors being made with the help of its joint venture with the Mitsubishi Group of Japan.
While the collaboration was announced earlier, it today unveiled further details about the production roadmap, as well as investments.
The company said it will introduced 37 models of tractors under the new collaboration, and these will be branded under a new K2 nomenclature and sold in India, Japan, USA, South East Asia and other markets.
The K2 series will focus on various light-weight segments, such as sub-compact, compact, small utility and large utility tractor categories.
Unlike regular, agriculture-oriented tractors, compact and utility tractors can be put to a variety of applications, such as estate management and garden use.
The utility and compact tractor segment is somewhat under-developed and under-penetrated in India, and most such roles are currently handled by regular, large-sized farm tractors.
All of these will be produced at Mahindra’s Zaheerabad tractor factory and will double the employment at the tractor plant by 2024, the farm equipment maker said.
At present, Mahindra’s farm equipment manufacturing unit in Telangana employs over 1,500 workers, with a capacity of over 1,00,000 tractors per year on a 2-shift basis.
The company will invest Rs 100 crore into the factory for the scale-up.
Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director for the company’s Automotive & Farm Equipment division called the K2 program “one of the company’s most ambitious tractor programs”.
“This project is focused on diversity and scalability to meet the varied expectations and different regional requirements of customers and markets across the world,” he added.
M&M said the Zaheerabad plant has the flexibility to roll-out over 330 different tractor variants ranging from 30 to 100 HP and sees around 65% of its tractor production exported globally.
The plant also produces Mahindra’s Rice Transplanters and Tractor Mounted Combine Harvesters.
Established in 2012, Zaheerabad is Mahindra’s youngest and largest tractor manufacturing plant in terms of capacity and produces the company’s next-generation range of Yuvo and Jivo tractors, including the recently launched Plus Series of tractors.
The company has invested close to Rs. 1,087 crores at its farm equipment manufacturing facility in Zaheerabad.
Besides farm equipment, the Zaheerabad facility also manufactures cargo and passenger vehicles.