Santana comes back?

Regarding the well-known German car magszine "auto-motor-sport" it is planned to bring back the Santana brand with a new rugged 4x4.

Santana build Land Rovers and later Suzuki 4x4s under license. Santana was owned by Iveco the last days and sold the Iveco Massif, a capable 4x4 and a further development of the Land Rover Series 3. Some kind of mixture between a Series and a Defender.

The new Santana is backed by a Chinese joint venture Zhengzhou Nissan.

A 4x4 and a pick up is planned.

I had a Massif in companion in the desert once. It did very well.





AWo

 

[NQ94]

There going to be a few 4x4s comming from China or Chinese joint ventures that will generate a lot of interest. Nearly every main stream vehicle and component manufacturer has JVs or factories in China.
GWM recently showed a twin turbo, V8 hybrid live axle 4x4.

 

[lightning]

There's a gap in the market for a low cost rugged 4x4
The Jimny was ideal if a bit too small, and it's discontinued in Europe anyway.

The Grenadier obviously fits the bill except for the cost, starting at £65,000 in the U.K. for the basic 2-seat Utility version.

What's needed is something around half that price. Suzuki managed to sell the top model Jimny SX5 for under £20,000 until 2020 (2024 for the 2-seat Commercial version)