The term "Jeep" is one with its origins in the Second World War. It's also one that was started by a slew of different American manufacturers, including Ford of all people. Don't tell any of this to the people at Stellantis group, the current owners of the Jeep brand. They're currently embattled in an international lawsuit with India's Mahindra Motor Company over the right to decide who gets to make jeep-like trucks even remotely similar to their own.
It's not the first time the Indian manufacturer's been embroiled with Chrysler over the styling cues of Mahindra's line of off-road trucks. If you ask Chrysler their thoughts, they've been getting more and more brazen as each model year passes. This begs the question, who's the victim and who's the aggressor in this whole debacle?
Mahindra has a deep and rich history of building copycat Jeeps. But if you ask Chrysler, these are nothing but shameless rip-offs.
Two Automakers Separated At Birth Since The 1940s
The long and complicated history between Jeep and Mahindra begins in the immediate aftermath of World War Two. In October 1945, a steel trading company called Mohamed and Mahindra was founded in the Punjabi city of Ludhiana. Soon, this venture branched into the automotive sector. In 1948, the newly re-named Mahindra & Mahindra struck a deal with Willy's Overland corporation, makers of the original World War Two MB quarter ton utility trucks to make a model specifically for the Indian market. This venture soon evolved into more than just licensed-built Willys-Jeeps. Soon, M&M was manufacturing tractors and light commercial trucks as well.
For the most part afterward, the two companies coexisted peacefully. Jeep would go on to become an iconic American brand under the ownership of the American Motors Corporation. M&M spent that same time becoming an integral part of the industrial backbone of a nation whose economy was growing at a rate rarely seen in other countries.
Fiat-Chrysler Take The Gloves Off
The peaceful coexistence between Jeep and Mahindra didn't fall apart until well after American Motors, Jeep's parent company sold the brand to Chrysler in the late 1980s. Initially, there was not much rocking of the boat. In fact, Mahindra inked a deal with Chrysler's then-parent company Fiat to design a "jeep-like" front grill for Mahindra's new Scorpio light SUV in 2009. The straw that broke the camel's back and lead to legal action from Chrysler came when Mahindra&Mahindra began efforts to sell their Roxor 4x4 in North America. A vehicle that looks strikingly similar to the CJ Jeep Wrangler.
The calm was promptly shattered in August 2018 when Fiat-Chrysler issued a cease and desist order preventing further utilization of infringing intellectual properties both in India and in the United States. As well as a limited exclusion order preventing manufacturing, importing, and assembling of the Mahindra Roxor. Mahindra's legal defense argued that the Roxor was nothing more than a continued practice of manufacturing "jeep-like" vehicles that date back over 70 years.
U.S courts ultimately reached a verdict siding with Fiat-Chrysler. The victorious Fiat-Chrysler demanded the Mahindra Roxor be banned from sale in the US Domestic Market. Ultimately, the courts decided the Roxor could be sold in the US pending a comprehensive styling change. For now, Mahindra will continue to operate its manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The first all-new auto manufacturing facility built in the Detroit metro area in almost three decades.
The Australian Legal System Gets Involved
Mahindra promptly responded by unveiling the Indian-only Thar off-roader, a vehicle that is a very obvious copy of the Jeep Wrangler. In May 2021, Chrysler, now under the control of the Stellantis Group, appealed to an Australian court that Mahinda had shamelessly copied the Jeep Wranglers design down to minute details. A clear violation of Stellantis intellectual property.
Stellantis' main impetus for filing its second lawsuit in 18 months in an effort to keep the Mahindra Thar from launching into the Australian market. Mahindra has been issued a 90 day notice period in order to redesign their Thar model into a design that is different enough aesthetically from the Jeep Wrangler in order to be legally sold without violating international business and trade laws.
Mahindra responded with a statement that the Thar off-roader was not planned to enter the Australian market at that juncture. This statement contradicted an advertisement on Mahindra's Australian website clearly showing a Thar. This advertisement was taken down soon afterward.
Peace Was Never An Option
Given the complex modern global economy, one could make the argument that it was only a matter of time until Jeep and Mahindra came to blows. In the meantime, Mahindra is undoubtedly hard at work reworking its model range to comply with new international legal rulings. Even still, Mahindra and Jeep are two companies that in a way can never be separated. No matter how hard one of those parties might try.
Sources: Reuters