After Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has now announced its plans for an electric vehicle portfolio in India. The two Indian OEMs are the only ones at present offering EVs in the Indian market and with M&Ms recent announcement, both will have upto six new EVs on offer in the coming years.?
The confirmation comes from Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, M&M. As per Goenka, this list of new EVs to come will include compact sports utility vehicles (SUVs), sedans, a mini truck and an all-new electric vehicle built from the ground up by the company.
The relatively dormant vehicle category that the company is eyeing is that of the electric pick up/mini trucks, which have only just started gaining headlines due to the likes of Tesla and Rivian. Goenka says that the firm will be bringing two such EV offerings each under the Supro and Jeeto lineup.?
Mahindra MD Pawan Goenka (Representative Image: Reuters)
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As for the rest of the types, first off the line would be an electric version of Mahindra¡¯s entry-level mini SUV, the KUV100. The launch of the electric car has been scheduled for the end of this year and the company is targeting to price it below the Rs 10 lakh mark.?
This would be followed by an electric remake of Ford Aspire by Mahindra. The electric sedan is expected to be launched sometime in 2021 and will mark an important launch for Mahindra as the second of its kind in the country after the eVerito.?
The most anticipated launch in this lineup, however, is that of an electric version of the Mahindra XUV300. Remember the Mahindra vehicle codenamed S210 that made headlines last year? It is expected to make its way to the market by 2020 and once it does, the vehicle will be the most potent electric vehicle from the house of Mahindra with an expected range of near 400 km on a single charge.?
Mahindra eVerito and e20 (Image: Mahindra Electric)
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Goenka says there is an even more important product in the lineup though. The vehicle to be built from the ground up by the company will be the first by Mahindra to be specifically developed as an electric vehicle and not an electric makeover of an existing car. We can guess that the vehicle will be based on Mahindra¡¯s MESMA EV architecture platform, wherein the lithium ion battery pack of the vehicle will be placed in the floor.?
Goenka also mentioned the company¡¯s efforts to develop an indigenous production of electric motors and batteries to be used in these vehicles. ¡°We are also investing on capacity for all of this at Chakan (Pune),¡± Goenka was quoted as saying. So essentially for these EVs, M&M only needs to import the battery cells, as per Goenka.
Just a week before, Tata Motors had announced its?plans around electric cars, confirming an upcoming launch of five new electric vehicles by the end of 2020. The cars mentioned by the company¡¯s top exec were a new version of the electric Tigor, an electric Nexon, electric Altroz, and one new and unseen EV.