M&M accelerates ‘Born EV’ plans, to expedite launches (2024)

The company is looking to advance its EV launch plans as it is eager to kick-off its new electric vehicle portfolio in the market, given the XUV400, an electrified version of its internal combustion-engine (ICE) product XUV300 is the only electric SUV from the automaker on offer at present and gives it limited access to the market for EVs in India, dominated by rivals like Tata Motors and MG Motor India.

Mahindra had previously stated that the XUV.e8 will be the first EV it will launch in the market in December 2024, followed by the e9 in April 2025 and BE.05 in October 2025. However, according to the company’s new plans, the XUV.e9 (codenamed the M310), the more coupe-like, premium counterpart of the XUV.e8 will make it to the market first, with a reveal expected on Independence Day (15 August) next year, with bookings likely to open around September-October shortly after, and deliveries slated from January 2025. The Rall-E, the e9 and Mahindra’s new EV brand, BE.05, are all expected to debut in the months between January and April 2025, in a departure from the company’s earlier plans to stagger its launches.

The company will leverage the fact that all of its ‘Born EVs’ will be built on a new, common platform INGLO to bring them to market at speed, although deliveries of some are only likely to begin after Q1 of 2025 due to supply chain delays.

Mahindra is positioning its electric SUVs as premium, luxury offerings in the market, with focus on segment-first features, like a 36-inch immersive-display, panoramic sunroof, immersive sound and light experiences to market to upwardly-mobile customers who seek feature-rich offerings at competitive prices.

Mahindra & Mahindra declined to comment on Mint’s query.

The company is testing the M310 at its SUV proving track in Chennai, involving suppliers early in the testing and feedback process. The company has hired management consulting firm McKinsey to implement feedback from top executives of the company’s top suppliers, who are being actively called to drive the products and give feedback on drivability, comfort, features and performance, into the design process, a first-of-its kind undertaking by an automotive OEM in the country, the people quoted earlier said.

“The first of the products (the XUV. e9) is at a very advanced level of readiness and testing. They’re not positioning the vehicles as BEVs, but are instead looking to market them as a luxury line of vehicles. The good thing is they’re involving suppliers early to improve the vehicle and identify early fails to a point that before it goes to the customer’s hands, there should be few complaints as this is a new proposition for them to sell and for the customers to accept," a supplier said on condition of anonymity.

In an earlier interaction, Shailesh Chandra, CEO and MD of Tata Motors’ passenger vehicle business, said while customers of the first-generation of EVs were early adopters and were accommodating of less-than-perfect new technologies, the second wave of customer adoption “will not accept any compromises".

“Mahindra by now has the pulse of its customers and will price the product competitively. Its XUV700 is a case in point - none of the company’s recent launches have been perceived as over-priced", a second industry stakeholder told Mint.

“Mahindra’s timelines, however, are very bullish and it can take the company some time to kick things off - but their target is stringent and they want to play aggressively in EVs now without much delay as they cannot afford to remain dependent on diesel for long", he added.

Over the next five years, Mahindra expects up to 30% of all the SUVs it sells in India to be EVs. It also knows many of these are unlikely to be existing Mahindra customers. Enter, BE. This brand new EV-only identity, coexisting alongside XUV brands that the company’s tech-savvy customers are already familiar with, is the dual strategy M&M will follow till 2027. Born EVs are vehicles manufactured on a pure EV platform. While rival Tata Motors has an early lead in the electric vehicle market, M&M will be the first automaker in India to carve out multiple models and brands on a single EV platform. Mahindra says its line-up of five EVs, developed on the born electric INGLO platform, will be its most powerful vehicles yet.

Tata Motors, so far the nearly unrivalled leader in EVs, commands nearly 70% of the market and has plans to launch its own pure electric EV Avinya about the same time, as well as EV SUVs such as the Harrier, Curvv and Sierra, which will give Mahindra a tough fight.

In August, Singapore’s Temasek said it will invest ₹1,200 crore in Mahindra’s electric vehicle subsidiary Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd (MEAL), joining British International Investments (BII) as an investor in MEAL. The investment values the automaker’s EV subsidiary at ₹80,580 crore.