[wheelguy]

While M&M has already opened its electric technologies plant in Bengaluru that produces battery packs, power electronics and motors, it has also invested in a new manufacturing unit at its Chakan plant to produce EVs.

New Delhi: Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd will put in fresh investments to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore on its electric vehicles business in the next three years, while it looks for more alliances and partnerships in the vertical, according to a top company official. M&M is working on developing an EV platform by combining the capabilities of its operations across the globe, including Detroit and Italy.

"So, for EVs, we are going to invest Rs 3,000 crore additional to what we have talked about," Mahindra Group Managing Director and CEO Anish Shah told.

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd had earlier said it was investing Rs 9,000 crore in the auto and farm sectors in the next five years.

The company, which has set a goal of putting 5 lakh electric vehicles on Indian roads by 2025, has already invested Rs 1,700 crore in the EV business in India with another Rs 500 crore on a new research and development (R&D) center.

While it has already opened its electric technologies plant in Bengaluru that produces battery packs, power electronics and motors, it has also invested in a new manufacturing unit at its chakan plant to produce EVs.

Shah, who recently took over as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer with the mandate to have complete oversight of and responsibility for all the Mahindra Group businesses, said the fresh investment "is over and above that".

It will be utilized in various activities, including developing a new platform that can roll out multiple models, by combining the group's various capabilities.

"...there are multiple capabilities we have within the group. We have capabilities in Detroit...we have the capability in Automobili Pininfarina and our Formula E," Shah said adding those are going to combine to get an electric platform for India.

When asked if M&M is looking for alliances or partnerships, he said, "For EVs, we will look at alliances. EV is the future."

"We already have one alliance. We have announced an MoU with REE (Automotive) which is an Israeli company. This is for smaller trucks and commercial vehicles. And we will have other alliances on the EV side as well. So we are very open to alliances but it is more for the future," Shah said.

On whether the future alliances would be technology or equity partnerships, he said, "We are open to all sorts of possibilities at this stage but at this point it is too early to say because we will have to have a lot of conversations. Once we do that we will have a better sense."

Bullish on the EV market in India he said for the last mile, which is three-wheelers and small four-wheelers for passengers and load, the cost of ownership is now the same as that of conventional vehicles with charging not an issue due to swappable batteries.

"So that segment, we see taking off in the short term. In the next two or three years, it should become a very significant part," Shah said.

However, he said, "For four-wheelers, it is going to take long... Infrastructure is not going to come in until the cost of ownership is equal. A lot of things have to work together but we see a three to five years horizon for that to happen."

Source

[Shreyans_Jain]

M&M making big announcements about its EV program is like Honda ‘evaluating’ the HRV for India. All talk. We’ve been hearing announcements for so many years, yet they have nothing to show.

These are the good folks who displayed a so called electric XUV300 at the Auto Expo, claiming all kinds of big specs. The car turned out to be a dummy for display, no power train or batteries or anything.

Show us a proper, relevant, working EV which you will actually sell. Then you’ll have the market’s attention. Right now, Mahindra’s EV division is pretty much a joke.

[FourWheelDrift]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Show us a proper, relevant, working EV which you will actually sell. Then you’ll have the market’s attention. Right now, Mahindra’s EV division is pretty much a joke.

While I understand your frustration with Mahindra, from the point of view of being a fellow car enthusiast and not having a credible offering for us, I think you judge them harshly as a company.

Mahindra clearly had the first-mover advantage in the EV space in India. They carried forward the Reva legacy and kept at it for a long while with their small cars, when customers for EVs were few and far between. One could argue it is a bit of a chicken and egg situation ... if there was a credible EV offering, there would be more takers. But I'm sure there were limitations in making such an offering at that time.

I'm guessing that Mahindra probably learned a lot about the mindset of the personal segment EV consumer early in the game, and a few years back decided to pivot to a burgeoning opportunity in the 3 wheeler space, rather than persist with slow-selling passenger car EVs. This is clearly a strategy call by the company.

I don't think they imagined the sweetly positioned Tata Nexon EV arriving in 2020, and being accepted as well as it has been. I think this was a bit of a miss for a lot of mainstream OEMs in India, not just Mahindra.

Dr. Pawan Goenka's comments in his recent final interview before stepping down from Mahindra, seem to corroborate the above https://auto.economictimes.indiatime...oenka/81947988

In the electric 3 wheeler space, Mahindra has done quite well, selling many more EVs than they would have, had they remained in the passenger car EV space. Their strategy to sell volumes and capture a fledgling but rapidly growing market seems to be working. Do note that the market leader for ICE powered 3 wheelers, is Bajaj ... and by a country mile at that. So, to take Bajaj on and break their formidable leadership stranglehold, is creditworthy.

Do have a look at :

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...301260456.html

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...-Insights.html

https://www.rushlane.com/three-wheel...-12399411.html

and

https://www.mahindraelectric.com/pdf...ev-journey.pdf

Cheers,

FourWheelDrift

[HammerHead]

I think Mahindra always believed that EV makes more sense in the commercial/mass transport space. While they had early start with EV in the form of Reva, they absolutely had no suitable candidate in the personal vehicle space neither they put in efforts to build one!
On the other hand TATA was spot on. They got their EVs in the fastest growing segments.