Attracting Glastonbury-esque interest, Mahindra’s new SUV clocked 25,000 orders within the first minute of books opening on 30 July, and 100,000 within the first 30 minutes. Totalling US$2.3bn in value (and counting) it was a fair scoop for the Indian car maker and an indication of just how iconic the Scorpio nameplate is in its home market.

But Mahindra has loftier goals, heralding the new Scorpio-N – which informally stands for ‘next generation’ – as a truly global product. Car Design News caught up with Pratap Bose, head of design at Mahindra and judge at the People Awards, to find out how the team approached the latest generation and where SUV design may be headed in future.

Car Design News: The Scorpio-N was a result of collaboration between Pininfarina in Italy and several Mahindra teams across India and the US. How does that relationship work?

Pratap Bose: It is on a project-by-project basis. Of course, if something is very specific to the Indian market I would usually only ask the India team to work on it. Having said that, we have involved Pininfarina in the past in such projects. In some cases, all three studios will compete but generally there is a lot of collaboration.