Mahindra VIN Decoder

Decode any Mahindra VIN free in seconds. Enter the 17-character vehicle identification number (called a “chassis number” on Indian registration paperwork) from your Mahindra into the decoder above and get the model, year, engine, trim, assembly plant, and recall status instantly, with no sign-up and no credit card.

This page covers Mahindra-specific WMI codes, a position-by-position guide to reading a Mahindra VIN, where to find the VIN, and how to check for open recalls, whether your vehicle is an India-market road car or a US-market Roxor.
A quick note on market coverage: Mahindra’s US footprint is unusual and worth understanding before you decode anything. Mahindra’s mainstream road cars (Scorpio, XUV700, Thar, Bolero) are sold across India and exported to parts of Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, but not as street-legal passenger cars in the United States. What Mahindra does sell in the US is the Roxor, a two-seat off-road side-by-side built in Auburn Hills, Michigan, classified federally as an off-highway vehicle rather than a road car. Because of that split, this page covers two frameworks: India’s MoRTH-administered VIN and recall system for road cars, and the US off-highway framework that applies to the Roxor. A US-titled Mahindra is almost certainly a Roxor; an Indian-registered Mahindra uses the standard 17-character ISO chassis number, exactly as it does for any other Indian-market carmaker on this site.

About Mahindra

Mahindra & Mahindra traces back to October 2, 1945, when brothers Kailash Chandra and Jagdish Chandra Mahindra founded a steel-trading firm in Ludhiana, India, together with Malik Ghulam Muhammad, under the name Mahindra & Mohammed. When Muhammad relocated to Pakistan after partition, the company was renamed Mahindra & Mahindra in 1948. It is now headquartered in Mumbai and forms the automotive core of the Mahindra Group, one of India’s largest business conglomerates. Mahindra later became a licensed assembler of Willys/Jeep vehicles in India, an odd bit of foreshadowing given the Roxor dispute below.

Today Mahindra is one of India’s largest SUV and commercial-vehicle makers, built around the Scorpio, XUV700, Thar, and Bolero, none sold as road-legal cars in the US. Mahindra does have a genuine, decades-long US presence in farm equipment: Mahindra USA has assembled tractors in Tomball, Texas, since 1994 and sold roughly 300,000 units in North America. Two other US ventures came and went: a diesel pickup program that won EPA approval around 2010 but collapsed in a distribution dispute before any trucks reached buyers, and GenZe, a Mahindra-owned electric scooter brand assembled in Michigan that shut down in 2020. The Roxor, launched in 2018, is the only current Mahindra product in the US that resembles a passenger vehicle.

The Roxor: an off-highway vehicle, not a road car

Mahindra Automotive North America (MANA) builds the Roxor in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and sells it as an off-road-only side-by-side, styled deliberately after the classic Jeep CJ. That styling triggered a well-known trade dispute: FCA filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission in August 2018 arguing the Roxor’s appearance infringed Jeep’s trade dress, and the ITC agreed in June 2020, recommending an exclusion order. Mahindra revised the design, and in December 2020 the ITC ruled that the redesigned 2021 model no longer infringed, clearing it to keep selling.

That history matters for VIN purposes because the Roxor was never submitted for on-road certification. It doesn’t meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, isn’t EPA-certified for on-road emissions, and doesn’t carry a federally regulated road VIN under 49 CFR Part 565. Instead, each Roxor carries a 17-character Product Identification Number (PIN) on a label in the engine compartment, driver’s side of the bulkhead. It looks like a VIN and is commonly called one by owners, but it identifies an off-highway recreational vehicle, governed by the voluntary ANSI/ROHVA 1 standard for Recreational Off-Highway Vehicles and overseen by the Consumer Product Safety Commission rather than NHTSA.

Mahindra WMI codes (positions 1-3)

The first three characters of any VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI). India-market Mahindra road vehicles use WMIs in the MA–MZ range reserved for India under ISO 3780:

Other Indian manufacturers for comparison: MAT (Tata Motors), MA3 (Maruti Suzuki), MBL (Hero MotoCorp two-wheelers), MD2 (Bajaj Auto).

NHTSA’s vPIC database also lists several US-based Mahindra entries, reflecting the fragmented history above:

7GB is registered to MANA, the entity that builds the Roxor. 58D traces to GenZe, Mahindra’s now-defunct US electric scooter brand. MCU and MCV were registered in 2015, most likely tied to the diesel pickup program that won EPA approval but never reached US customers, which is why you won’t find real-world VINs carrying those two codes on the road.

How to read a Mahindra VIN: position by position

India-market Mahindra vehicles follow the standard worldwide ISO 3779 structure used by every carmaker:

Positions 1-3: World Manufacturer Identifier

See the WMI table above. Every India-built Mahindra road vehicle carries MAH at the start of its chassis number.

Positions 4-8: Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS)

These five characters encode the model line, body style, engine and fuel type (petrol, diesel, or electric), and restraint package, the block that separates a Scorpio from a Bolero or a Thar from an XUV700.

Position 9: Check digit

The check digit is calculated from the other 16 characters using a fixed weighting table and modulo-11 math. If even one character is mistyped or altered, the check digit won’t match, and a compliant decoder will flag the VIN as invalid.

Position 10: Model year

The 10th character maps to a model year on a 30-year cycle, identical worldwide under ISO 3779:

The letters I, O, and Q are never used in any VIN, Mahindra’s included, because they look too similar to the digits 1 and 0.

Position 11: Assembly plant

The single character at position 11 identifies the specific factory. Mahindra builds road vehicles at several Indian plants, including Nashik, Chakan (Pune), Zaheerabad, and Haridwar. The Roxor’s PIN follows a similar 17-character layout but is issued by MANA in Auburn Hills, Michigan, since it isn’t governed by the ISO/road-VIN framework at all.

Positions 12-17: Serial number

The final six characters are the production sequence number stamped on your specific vehicle as it rolled off the line, making every Mahindra VIN globally unique within its own numbering system.

Where to find the VIN on a Mahindra

For India-market road vehicles:

• Vehicle registration certificate (RC book or Parivahan e-RC)
• Stamped directly on the chassis frame, usually near the engine bay
• Windshield or driver’s-side door jamb sticker on most recent models
• Insurance policy documents and the service/warranty booklet

For the US-market Roxor, the 17-character PIN is on a label in the engine compartment, driver’s side of the firewall, not on the windshield or door jamb the way a road car’s VIN is.

Mahindra’s own history predates the modern VIN: it was building Jeep-derived vehicles in India from the 1950s, well before the 17-character ISO format existed, so a genuinely old Mahindra, or any vehicle built before 1981, may carry a shorter, non-standard chassis number. For those, see our classic car VIN decoder guide.

Check Mahindra recalls and safety information

Mahindra’s road cars and its US Roxor fall under two different regulatory systems.
India-market road vehicles fall under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). Since April 2021, Rule 127C of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, gives India its first mandatory recall framework: a vehicle can be declared “defective” and recalled once verified complaints reach a set threshold relative to that model’s sales, with penalties for non-compliance. Before Rule 127C, recalls ran voluntarily through SIAM (the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers), and Mahindra still issues voluntary service campaigns outside the mandatory process.

1. Decode the VIN with the tool above to confirm model, model year, and assembly plant
2. Check MoRTH’s Vehicle Recall Portal at vahan.parivahan.gov.in/vehiclerecall
3. Contact your nearest Mahindra authorised service centre with the chassis number for confirmation and free repair

The US-market Roxor, and Mahindra-branded off-road vehicles generally, fall under the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) rather than NHTSA, since they’re classified as recreational off-highway vehicles rather than road cars. As one real example, in June 2022 the CPSC recalled roughly 16,000 Intimidator- and Mahindra-branded utility vehicles (a separate line built by Intimidator Inc. under a long-running Mahindra partnership, not the Roxor itself) over a throttle-cable freezing defect. If you own a Roxor or another Mahindra off-road vehicle, check CPSC.gov or contact a Mahindra dealer with your PIN.

Frequently asked questions

How do I decode my Mahindra VIN?

Type the 17-character VIN, or the 17-character PIN if it’s a Roxor, into the decoder at the top of this page. For India-market road vehicles, results include model, model year, body style, engine and fuel type, assembly plant, and known recall actions.

Is Mahindra sold in the USA?

Not as a conventional road car. Mahindra’s SUV and truck lineup (Scorpio, XUV700, Thar, Bolero) is sold in India and select export markets, not the US. The one Mahindra product genuinely sold in the US is the Roxor, an off-road-only side-by-side built in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Mahindra also has a large, unrelated US tractor business dating to 1994.

Is the Mahindra Roxor street legal?

Not out of the box. The Roxor was never submitted for federal on-road certification, so it’s sold and titled as an off-highway recreational vehicle. Some states and localities allow off-highway vehicles on certain roads under local ordinances, but that varies widely and isn’t something a PIN decode can confirm; check your state DMV and local rules directly.

Is the Mahindra VIN decoder free?

Yes. VinDecoderPlus decodes every Mahindra VIN or Roxor PIN free of charge with no sign-up or credit card required.

What does the VIN tell me about my Mahindra?

For an India-market road vehicle, a VIN decode confirms the original factory configuration: model, model year, body style, engine and fuel type, assembly plant, and any recall actions under India’s MoRTH framework. For a Roxor, the PIN confirms the specific unit’s build record with Mahindra Automotive North America, but recall and safety information runs through the CPSC rather than NHTSA. Neither decode records paint colour, current odometer reading, accident history, or ownership chain.

Decode any Mahindra VIN free

Type your 17-character Mahindra VIN or Roxor PIN into the decoder at the top of this page and get a full breakdown instantly. To learn more about VIN structure in general, see our guides:

• How to read a VIN number
• What every character in a VIN means
• Classic car VIN decoder (pre-1981)
• VIN decoder vs. vehicle history report
• How to check if a car is stolen by VIN