Mahindra, the company that produces the intentionally Jeep-like Roxor, is looking at sites in Detroit, Oakland County, and Genesee County in the event that it lands a $6 billion contract to supply the U.S. Postal Service with delivery vehicles.
While USPS has already begun supplementing the now-ancient Grumman LLV with more-modern vans and utility vehicles, it launched an official search for a replacement in 2015. Mahindra was one of the finalists, along with AM General, Karsan, Oshkosh-Ford, Utilimaster, and VT Hackney.
The Postal Service plans on making a final decision this summer as to who will build some 180,000 replacement vehicles over the next six years.
According to Crain’s Detroit Business, Rick Haas, president and CEO of Mahindra Automotive North America, said he likes the company’s odds, acknowledging that the USPS’ decision will influence the direction it takes as an automaker.
“If we get a piece of that or all of that contract, that opens a bunch of doors, shuts a few other ones,” Haas said at a Troy Chamber of Commerce event from earlier this week. “If we don’t get it, it shuts some doors, opens some other ones. So we’re going to evaluate it all.”