As Mahindra & Mahindra disrupts the mid-size SUV market with its competitively priced Electric Origin vehicles, the company's president of automotive business, Veejay Ram Nakra, reiterates the automaker's ambitious plans to electrify its portfolio and address charging infrastructure challenges.
23 Dec 2024 | 5699 Views | By Hormazd Sorabjee
Mahindra & Mahindra has transformed the mid-size SUV landscape with its competitively positioned Electric Origin SUVs, offering cutting-edge technology at compelling price points. Beyond making electric vehicles more accessible to mainstream buyers, the company maintains an optimistic outlook, projecting that EVs will constitute 20-30% of its total sales volume, even ...
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Mahindra & Mahindra has transformed the mid-size SUV landscape with its competitively positioned Electric Origin SUVs, offering cutting-edge technology at compelling price points. Beyond making electric vehicles more accessible to mainstream buyers, the company maintains an optimistic outlook, projecting that EVs will constitute 20-30% of its total sales volume, even amid current market headwinds.
Autocar India's Hormazd Sorabjee interviewed Veejay Ram Nakra, the president of Automotive Business at Mahindra & Mahindra, about his expectations from the recently launched BE 6 and XEV 9e and how he sees the acceleration in adoption of EVs with the expansion of choice in the marketplace.
What do you think about the timing of unveiling two, grounds-up EVs at a time when the market is slowing down and has challenges?
Timing is always a function of what triggers a category's growth. As you rightly said, we see a slight flattening of the EV category. We have launched our two offerings and there will be more models from the competition. We welcome competition because it will expand the category. We firmly believe that in the next two years, we will see significant growth in the EV category. Customers will have many choices and get a real flavour of what electric-origin SUVs are like in terms of range, technology, and safety.
What is your prediction on how the EV market will grow with more choices available to consumers?
It's difficult to comment on the industry's growth potential. Still, we are confident about our product—we have said that 20-30% of our SUV portfolio will be electric vehicles by 2027 and that has been kickstarted with the first two vehicles we launched.
With your INGLO platform products, it looks like the range and price barriers are taken care of. Do you think charging is now the last hurdle to be overcome for EVs to become mainstream?
We have broken the first barrier by giving a long driving range. I think we've done it by being a manufacturer that brings a range of real-world usage, tested in more than 25 cities, showing that with a 79-kilowatt-hour battery that we offer, you can drive for a range of 500 plus km.
Charging is, without a doubt, the next barrier that the industry needs to overcome. We would overcome it by giving you a better range, providing a charging solution within the city, and giving you access to better public charging infrastructure. This then pivots towards electric vehicles becoming mainstream ownership, not just a second or third vehicle in India.
Let me talk a little bit more about what we are doing. We've created a dedicated vertical called Charged.in, and the whole objective was that from the time you are a prospect until the time we deliver the vehicle, we will work with you to find a charging solution.
There are a few cities which are high-rise cities where we have a certain level of challenges because of society rules, the ability to get approvals, etc. In the north, south, east, and west of India, people live in independent houses. So, solving the charging requirements in those cities is much easier. But even there, we believe that there are charging challenges in residential complexes.
We intend to work with customers to find solutions at their workplace or at home from the time they become our prospects. Hence, we will have a relationship manager who will work with the ecosystem to ensure we can offer you a charging solution along with your product.
I also want to add that Rs 2,000 crore has been invested in charging infrastructure with the recent PM E-DRIVE. The Ministry of Heavy Industries is doing phenomenal work to identify key hub locations on highways.
They are talking about setting up charging infrastructure in a range of 20 kilometres on either side of the highways. Once that comes in, I think this will give the customer confidence.
How long do you think it will take for the charging problem to get resolved?
Everything is just coming together, whether you look at technology, electric origin products, range, or all the efforts going into solving charging problems. So, we are pretty optimistic that in the next year or two, we should see the flip that we need for the industry to move towards the next level.
Why charge extra for the charging port?
I think at the end of the day, let's not also forget that there are a lot of people who would consider buying this as their second EV. They may already have a charger. Many of the residential complexes today already provide for community charging in their complex. So, we didn't want to make it mandatory. It will be an option.
By 2027, you have set a target of 20-30% penetration; can it happen with just two products?
It is difficult to answer that question at the moment. As we move forward, we will come out with what we intend to launch in the future, even on the INGLO platform. So, we will talk about all future launches at a later date.
But is the INGLO platform enough to reach your EV penetration targets?
There will be a full portfolio. As we discussed earlier, while we begin with XEVs and BEs, there is also the Thar, Bolero, and Scorpio, which will be available as EVs. So we are working on them. When, I think, is a matter of time; we'll talk about it later.
But it won't happen all on one platform?
We don't build businesses on a single platform. We will work on a full-scale product line as we move in time. Based on market requirements, customer needs, and competitive scenarios, one can decide on new platforms.
Talking about batteries and localisation, what's the update on sourcing cells and motors from Volkswagen? From what I understand, there might be a bit of delay in sourcing this?
From day one, the plan never was to have their [VW's] battery cells at the time of the first launch. Our association with Volkswagen is based on the unified cell technology, which is still in development. So, when they launch it globally, we will be able to include it in our EVs. As soon as it is ready globally, we will have it.
You've even been in discussions with VW for electric motors, is that happening?
That's not an immediate part of the plan. It's already been part of a certain phase of production of the components that we are tied up with Volkswagen for. So, in due course, we will look at it.
Do you think the BE 6 is too radical for the Indian market, especially if you are looking at mainstream buyers?
In 2002, we launched the Scorpio, which we thought was very radical. When we came out with the XUV500, that was radical too. We then came out with the Thar, and that was radical too. So, categories are built when you bring radical products with mass appeal.
We believe that the two products that we bring today are entirely different. That's why the brand names are different; the design language and product offerings are different, the dimensions and sizes are different, and the positioning is different.
We believe we've got enough insights that we have picked up along the journey, and these will broaden these products. Insighting is a process that improves with time. I'm sure we will incorporate that into future products. But for what we launched just now, I think we've got a great package at a great price, which we believe will help the category grow.
Is there any volume projection or forecast you would like to give?
We put in an installed capacity of 90,000, which will be ramped up in a phased manner by the end of the next financial year. So, that's the kind of capacity we're looking at. We are pretty confident that the products that we bring in will get scale and we'll get the volumes. It will be great to see the numbers when the rubber hits the road.