Mahindra Roxor Ban Lifted – Michigan Court Bins “Safe Distance” Rule

In a recent turn of events, the Eastern District Court of Michigan lifted the ban on the production, distribution, and sales of the post-2020 iteration of the Mahindra Roxor in the US. Thanks to this new ruling, Mahindra could now sell the Roxor in the international markets as well.

Looking back at the incident, FCA had filed a lawsuit against Mahindra in Michigan claiming similarities with the Jeep. Based on this, Mahindra completely revised the design of the Roxor in 2020.

However, FCA was left unconvinced and the case was referred to the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2022. Later the court was asked to check if the 2020iteration of the Roxor complied with the "safe distance" rule.

In this case, the Eastern District Court of Michigan concluded that the "Safe Distance" rule cannot be enforced. This means the 2020 iteration of the Mahindra Roxor no longer violates any design trademarks.

Speaking about the Mahindra Roxor, it is classified by Mahindra as a side-by-side, and the model was first introduced in the US back in 2018. Within a few months of its launch, the Mahindra Roxor immediately gained a lot of traction in the US market.

Some of the highlighting characteristics of the Mahindra Roxor included rugged and robust build quality, a frugal powertrain, good off-road ability and payload capacity. However, the most important quality of the Mahindra Roxor was its simplicity, and the model was very easy to work on - A quality, many admired.

A closer look at the Mahindra Roxor's simplicity reveals that the model is based on the last-generation Mahindra Thar Di. As a result, the Roxor features a 2.5-litre, four-cylinder, diesel engine.

This engine in the Mahindra Roxor is tuned to produce 63bhp at 3,200rpm and 195Nm of torque at a very low 1,400rpm. Furthermore, the model also comes with a choice of a 5-speed manual transmission and 6-speed automatic transmission.

To make it off-road worthy, the Mahindra Roxor also features a robust four-wheel drive system with a low-ratio gearbox. That being said, the top speed of the Mahindra Roxor is limited to just 89km/h.

Thoughts About The Mahindra Roxor

With the latest judgement, Mahindra could now commence the production, distribution and sales of the Roxor side-by-side in the US. The judgement also allows the Indian automaker to sell the Roxor in other countries as well.