For one reason or another, the Mahindra Thar has been in the news ever since it was unveiled last year on 15 August – India’s Independence Day – and is once again making headlines, albeit for the wrong reasons. This time, the Thar has been taken to court by Jeep in Australia, of all places, as the second-gen 4×4 was ostensibly being readied for a launch. In a case management hearing in the Federal Court of Australia, Jeep pressed for a ban on the marketing and sale of the Thar in the Australian market, as the company believes that the Mahindra 4×4 is a clear rip-off of its own off-roader, the Jeep Wrangler.

That the Thar is visibly similar to the Wrangler cannot be denied, but it is also important to note its origins. The second-gen 4×4 is an evolution of the original Thar, which itself was a grown-up, modernized version of the ‘Willys’ Jeep, which Mahindra started producing under license in India at the end of the 1940s.

The reason why Jeep has taken Mahindra to court in Australia now is that the Indian manufacturer has been promoting the new-generation Thar down for the past six months. A test mule of the Thar has previously been spotted in Australia, which was slated to be one of the first export markets for the off-roader. In fact, Mahindra Australia’s website even housed a ‘Register Your Interest’ page for the new Thar for a few months, but that has now been taken down.

In response to Jeep’s lawsuit, Mahindra has clearly said there are no plans to launch the current-generation Thar in Australia at this time, as it is still in the process of ramping up production to meet surging demand in India. Jeep’s lawyers sought assurance from Mahindra that the maker of the Thar would provide a written notice three months before starting the homologation process, in case it intends to launch a ‘Jeep Wrangler-like’ 4×4 in Australia. Mahindra maintained that it didn’t have any plans to introduce the Thar down under, but still proposed a shorter notice period of half that duration, in case of plans change.

Replying to a query from Tech2, a Mahindra spokesperson said, “We have filed our reply in the proceeding commenced by FCA against us. There are no plans to launch the current model of the Thar in Australia. We would provide adequate notice to FCA, as is requested if we were to launch any future model of the Thar in Australia.”

But this contradicts reports on multiple Australian motoring websites, which confirmed Mahindra was indeed going to launch the new Thar in the Australian market in 2021. In fact, in November 2020, carsales.au quoted a Mahindra spokesperson as saying “It’s definitely coming to Australia in 2021. The milestones for any new vehicle launch in Australia are homologation approval by DOTARs and then production for this market at the factory. We are working through both of these and will announce launch details as they reach completion.”