[adithya.m.bhat]

This thread chronicles the buying journey and ownership experience of my current vehicle — the Mahindra BE6. With this thread, I aim to share detailed insights into various aspects of living with the BE6, including:

• The purchase decision and buying process
• Service and maintenance updates
• Software upgrades and improvements
• Experiments I try within the vehicle

I’ve organized the content into clearly defined sections to keep the thread structured and easy to follow — so it doesn’t become one long, never-ending post!

P.S.: This is my first post here on Team-BHP. I’ve made every effort to adhere to the posting guidelines. If I’ve overlooked anything, please do let me know — I’ll be happy to correct it right away.
Looking forward to sharing this journey with all of you and learning from your insights as well!

[adithya.m.bhat]

Background : Me, my vehicles, its usage

I’d describe myself as a simple person with fewer wants and a deep love for driving. My father worked in a bank, which meant we moved cities every 2–3 years. That nomadic lifestyle shaped me early on. During my engineering days, I spent most of my time glued to computer games like Dota, NFS Most Wanted, and Call of Duty, and my evenings were usually reserved for basketball. Studies were never a challenge—I consistently ranked in the top 10% of my batch. The college and hostel were located in a forested area, and there wasn’t much else to do, so I guess that helped!

My father taught me to drive early, which made it easy for me to get my license while still in engineering. After graduation, I pursued my Master’s in Automotive Engineering in Bangalore, from a reputed institute. Getting placed was a bit tough, as most companies preferred fresh graduates, but I managed to land a year-long internship at Bosch through an open campus drive.
The real turning point in my automotive journey came when my father decided to buy me a car during my second year of post-graduation. After extensive online research, I chose a white Maruti Swift VXi, which I picked up from a Maruti True Value dealer with just ~16k km on the odometer. In the four years that followed, I clocked over 1 lakh km, including a memorable solo trip from Bangalore to Mumbai, Ajanta, Ellora, and back.

Swift during one of the many trips


Since the car was bought outright and I had few other expenses, most of my salary went straight into fuel. Weekend drives became my therapy—sometimes planned, sometimes completely spontaneous. There were many evenings I left the office with no destination, just a direction in mind. These drives offered a kind of solace that nothing else could. My time with the Swift included two accidents—one major on the outskirts of Ahmedabad (which I’m lucky to have survived), and another minor but still serious. That little car taught me more about life and driving than anything else ever has. I finally parted ways with it in 2018 when it was time to upgrade.

Enter my next ride: the Maruti Baleno RS.






Back then, I wanted something a bit more spacious, slightly more powerful than the Swift, and still easy on the pocket. The three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine checked all the boxes. Since I was already a Maruti customer, the decision was straightforward. I still fondly remember my multiple visits to the Sarjapur NEXA showroom. While many things could’ve been done over the phone, I used every excuse to go see the car in person and soak in every detail. The sales advisor and the entire NEXA staff made the whole experience truly memorable. In the first year of ownership, I clocked around 35,000 km, thanks to that “new car excitement.” After that, life happened—marriage, followed shortly by COVID. Naturally, driving took a backseat for a couple of years.

Meanwhile, my father bought a Hyundai Ioniq 5, and that car opened up a new world. The performance and refinement of the EV were simply leagues ahead of any ICE. After experiencing it over 30,000 km, I was convinced: my next car had to be electric. The only condition? It had to offer a real-world range of 400+ km, so I could do my usual Bangalore–Mangalore runs without charging stops.

At the time of parting, my Baleno RS stood at 1.09 lakh km, on its second set of tires, still in great shape. I absolutely loved its compact form factor and the turbo-petrol punch. But with everything considered, it was time to start a new chapter.

[adithya.m.bhat]

BE6: From seeing the vehicle to owing it

Come 26th November when Mahindra unveiled the two electrics XEV9e and the BE6e (later renamed to BE6), I checked out the YouTube videos and immediately got super excited. 79kWh battery was big enough and the ARAI driving range of 680+km was very much comparable to the Hyundai Ioniq 5’s 631km. This was perfectly the car that I was waiting for. It neatly served my need of a great range to do my Mangalore-Bangalore trips. The BE6 had the style of a sports car and I thought This is it — my dream EV.

In December 2024 and January 2025, I went through nearly every online article, post, and video available about the vehicle. I also visited multiple dealers across Bangalore and took several test drives. Eventually, I chose PPS Mahindra in Hebbal, primarily based on their impressive 4.8 rating on Google. When it came to the colour, my initial choice was white — a classic. However, my wife wanted something different this time, having already owned two white cars in the past. After going through countless photos and videos together, we finally decided on Tango Red. I pre-booked the top of the line, Pack Three variant on 10th February, handing over a ₹21,000 cheque to a sales advisor named K, who introduced himself as one of their top performers. What followed was, to put it mildly, a test of patience. I’ve tried to capture the experience in as much chronological detail as possible:

Booking done on 14th, I check the status in evening in website; get the receipt on 24th Feb for the booking amount

4 March, Thu – SA tells me that the vehicle might be arriving in two weeks and should start with loan arrangement. Loan discussion starts

7 March, Fri evening – I get to know about charger being excluded from a news; see the official info on twitter on 8th March; SA has no clue about this info

8 March, Sat – I have finalized my bank for the loan; they want proforma invoice to begin; I ask SA for same
Couple of days pass by.. no clarity. Meanwhile I am going through a vacation with family from 10 March to 20 March

12 March, Wed – Still no Proforma invoice; Bank rep has a workaround – has magically got a price list of all BE 6 and XEV 9e vehicles from same dealer. I give a go ahead to process the loan application with this doc. Loan application is done.

14 March, Fri – I receive loan approval letter

20 March, Thu – I finish my vacation; check out team bhp for updates; get to know that lot of vehicles are delayed and software niggles are rampant.

22 March, Sat – I see a YouTube shorts about the chrome key update. Share with SA for confirmation

23 March, Sun – Read in team bhp about delivery of kennethomas’s vehicle in Blr. Send out the image of vehicle to SA. SA still says that no vehicle in Bangalore is registered. Says image is of test drive car! I share him link of team-bhp post.

24 March, Mon – SA confirms delivery was done. Promises me my vehicle allocation soon

9 April, Wed – My daughter’s birthday, get a news from SA that my vehicle is soon to be allotted. Vehicle is in transit to Bangalore. Wants to initiate the loan sales process again. I let him; I want to check if I can get a better deal.

11 April, Fri – SA tells me that the vehicle is coming with charger! I ask for removal but he says the billing can be done vehicle and charger put together only. I have already read posts from team bhp where someone from Mohali had written about escalating to customer care to get the charger removed. So, I write mail to customer care. Immediately get reply routing it back to GM of dealership to take action. Even get a call from the office of dealership to identify the reason for not opting for charger. She says the info will be used to make my case.

12 April, Sat - Around afternoon person S from MEAL calls me saying that I have only two options: either to go with charger and take the current allocation or to wait it our for a fresh batch for a vehicle without charger. Waiting for the fresh batch could be around a month.

13 April, Sun – I confirm in the morning to my SA that ill opt for the current allocation. Ask him to proceed with this option.

15 April, Mon – I get to know that vehicle has reached Bangalore stockyard. I ask for PDI, but SA tells that they don’t allow PDI at this stage. Tells me that the process is loan disbursal first, then vehicle invoicing by Mahindra, then PDI, then insurance then registration. I am confused, I check some online sources (read ChatGPT) and get to know that while doing PDI I also need to check the invoice details if its matching with VIN/chassis number, so I don’t insist further. Further, I tell SA that ill get the loan disbursed first, then make the remaining payment at the time of delivery along with other charges, he agrees.
In evening, I connect with Ultimate Detailerz. I had read the thread in team bhp about them praising their eye for detail and the workmanship. After talking to them, I was clear about the PPF product for my new vehicle and have made up my mind to give the car to them right after the delivery for application.

16 April, Wed – Get no better offer for the loan. Decide to go with my previously approved bank loan. I share dealership finance person contact to the bank rep.

17 April, Thu – Bank rep says dealership finance person not responding for calls! Says he need proforma invoice and booking receipt. I share him the booking receipt and ask my SA to contact finance to share the proforma invoice. Later in evening, I follow up and bank rep says that he has been told that the dealership finance person has left to home owing to medical reasons! (I smell the lie as my SA has also previously mentioned to me twice about visiting hospital as a reason for not picking up calls. Other day, dealership loan rep also had the same excuse for another previous day! Seems like an amazing medical insurance plan offered to the dealership employees or that its their collective go to lie reason!)

18 April, Fri – Bank holiday, but bank rep is following up with dealership (Kudos to the Bank Rep!). Proforma invoice is generated and shared. Bank rep tries to sell me insurance. I say I don’t want to be clubbed with loan. He says if I don’t by, then I will have pre-closure charges! I say this wasn’t mentioned to me when the other bank person was selling me! I try multiple times to reach out to bank’s relationship manager (had been trying for past couple of days) but cannot go through automated teller. It keeps telling that the relationship manager is busy and a callback is scheduled. Callback never happens.
Finance reps from dealership call me asking for remaining payment. I get confused as this contradicts what I agreed with SA on 15th April. Ask SA to talk to them and come to a consensus. SA comes back, after discussing with them, mentioning to me that I need to do the downpayment as the bank is asking for a downpayment receipt! I am busy with some work, I tell him that ill call him next morning.

19 April, Sat – Clarify with SA again and ask him why this requirement of downpayment receipt wasn’t mentioned beforehand to me in the process? Also, questioned how he agreed to the process where ill do the remaining payment during the delivery? I am then told that since I took loan from outside (without the lead of their finance team), the bank needs down payment receipt. I am told to pay the (ex-showroom + TCS + registration - booking amount - loan disbursal amount) as down payment. I am frustrated, but see no way ahead, get the payment details and pay.
Get contact of dealer Insurance rep too. I ping her to get the quote. Also following up with other insurance to get the best price. Get to know that 3 year Own Damage is offered along with 3 year Third Party (OD3+TP3). I see the cost of premium is less than doing it for individual year. Additionally get to know that the NCB gets bumped to 50% if there is no claim at the end of three years. I ask around for this package with all to get the quotes.
End of day, have two promising leads – Bank insurance offering OD3+TP3 at 127k and Dealership offering 80k for OD1+TP3 package. There are minor differences in Add-ons but my requests are present in both: an IDV matching 26.9lac, Zero Depreciation, Return to invoice and Battery Protect addons. I revert to dealership insurance lady to offer me a quote with the OD3+TP3 package and with my requested add-ons.
Further, I don’t receive that promised callback from the bank RM to discuss on the pre-closure conditions and the necessity to buy cross products. And the bank loan rep is firm that I will have pre-closure charges without a cross product. I enquire on the various products they have. I get to know that the list includes a vehicle insurance and an insurance for loan. Since I am not finalized on the vehicle insurance yet, I choose to go with the insurance for loan. I am told that this will cost me Rs. 20859. I choose this to proceed with the loan disbursal since I definitely do not want to pay for the pre-closure charges.
Last couple of days has been so frustrating and draining my energy. I have now lost the excitement of new car purchase and just want to get over with this process.

21 April, Mon – No reply from dealership insurance rep. I get impatient by evening as follow up. I am told of a network problem that’s not allowing to generate a quote. (my hunch is that this also is a lie). However, I ask her to send me the quote first thing next morning.
On a positive note, the loan is disbursed, and I get the Delivery Order. I recollect having discussion with my SA earlier on the timeline. He had mentioned that it would take approximately 10 days post loan disbursement for the vehicle delivery. I start counting my days and planning for a delivery date. Inside my heart, I am hoping that the SA can pull some magic and get me the delivery before May1-4 long weekend. In this regards, I enquire with SA if the next step of vehicle invoicing has started, and he confirms on chat ‘started sir’.

22 April, Tue - 10am, I get another message from the dealership insurance lady mentioning of ‘portal not working’, this time along with a screenshot. The screenshot has an image “Invalid parameter Please Provide Start Date”. I am stunned at the stupidness. I don’t understand which part of that error is not clear! and have no words for her. Luckily at 12, I get a quote for OD3+TP3 package. However, the add-ons are not what I had requested. Quote is for 165k. I get a call; I cut it messaging that I am in a meeting. Call her back after my meeting, cannot get through. Drop her a message to call me to discuss about the quote. No reply.

23 April, Wed – I get a callback from insurance lady and I get some clarity that some additional addons are part of a package and cannot be removed. With this information, I decide & confirm to go with the bank insurance option instead. The bank insurance needs the vehicle invoice to process the vehicle insurance. I follow up with my SA for this and this time he tells me that he was waiting for me to confirm the insurance and with this confirmation, he will start the invoice process!!! What was the whole ‘started sir’ message on 21st????

25 April, Fri – In afternoon, I get a call from SA mentioning that there is an additional pending payment that is required from my end since I paid previously through credit card. Further, SA wants me to write an email to dealership “stating that I want to take insurance on my own risk”. At this point, I have lost patience to fight over these. I simply want to get done with the process and get my car. I make the payment and send the email. At this point, I have no clue about when the delivery can happen. I start packing for a week long trip to Mangalore, my parents place. At the corner of my heart, I have a slight hope that my SA can pull some magic and give me the delivery by April end, in which case I fully plan to take the delivery and use my new car to visit the family functions between May 2 and May 4. But in my head, I know that this is too much to expect from the dealership. So, I constantly console myself to not expect delivery in the week.

26 April, Sat – I finally get the invoice. Forward it to the Bank to process the vehicle insurance. Additionally, the accessory rep gets in touch with me sharing all the options that I have. I go through it, and choose the interior mats, boot mat and frunk mat and ask him to order it for me.

28 April, Mon – I get the online KYC link & payment link from bank. I go through it and complete the process. I receive the insurance policy document in evening. The policy has my email id mentioned wrong and I ask for a correction.

29 April, Tue – I enquire for the updated policy document for the vehicle insurance. I am told that due to high load of work at month end, generating an updated document will take time. I get a confirmation that only the email id will change and no other detail including the policy number will change. With this confirmation, I send the insurance document to the SA. When enquired about the delivery date with SA, I am told that any date including and after May 6 is possible. I inform him of my travel plan and tell him that I wont be available to do a PDI, ask him to proceed without it. I ask him to prepare for May 6 delivery itself which he confirms. At the evening an emergency and a shock struck to my family, my grandfather passed away. New family itinerary is made to cover all the last rites and we decide to go to our hometown immediately.

05 May, Mon – My SA calls me in the morning as asks me to come for PDI in evening. Says that the PDI can be scheduled for the evening. I am utterly confused, the delivery was planned for 6th and one day before, I come to know that registration has not even started. I am heavily disappointed over all the false promises. However, at the same time I am also occupied with all the rituals and thus I tell him about the loss in family and mention to him that ill be back in Bangalore only on 14th May for the PDI and to plan accordingly.

13 May, Tue – Several days pass by; all rituals go as planned and I call up my SA to enquire about my appointment for PDI. Call doesn’t connect, and I get a callback in evening mentioning that he is on vacation and will get back with the appointment details the next day.

14 May, Wed – I get no update till 12 in noon and I shoot SA a WhatsApp text enquiring on the appointment. I get a reply after an hour asking to come at 17:00 to the Indiranagar showroom for the PDI. The lack of communicating in advance appals me. I cannot make it to the evening appointment with all my work commitments! I inform this to him and mention that I can come next day. At this point, he mentions that one of the document ‘form 20’ is not received from the bank yet. I don’t like this news because, this form was already supposedly sent by the bank’s loan rep 2 times already. So, I shoot a message to the bank’s loan rep asking to send a copy of the form 20 to me.

15 May, Thu – I get the form 20 in afternoon and visit the showroom for the PDI. The vehicle looks clean with water wash done.



There are no visible scratches on the vehicle, paint looks good with no sign of paint chipping anywhere. The vehicle seems to pass all the basic checks. I meet the person S from MEAL as my SA was on another task. Person S tells me that only 4 vehicles has been delivered so far by the PPS dealerships and allotment is a bottleneck. During PDI, I notice that all four tires are from Goodyear and are from different months ranging from 48th week of 2024 all the way up to 1st week of 2025.





The odometer stands at 143km and the battery SoC at 47%. Person S tells me that the stockyard is in another corner of the city and it takes about 3-4 hrs to get the vehicle to showroom and back. I relate this being the reason for the >100km odometer reading. Except for the tires, the vehicle looks great at the basement of the showroom. The tires themselves do not have the small rubber spikes on the face that a fresh tire should have. However, the tread depth looks good and I ignore the worn spikes. I sign a letter mentioning that I have done the PDI and submit the form 20 that I had received from the bank. Both S and my SA tell me that the registration process will start the next day where a person will collect the relevant documents from the showroom and in the process, I would need to share them an OTP. I express that I don’t want any special numbers for registration and on enquiring on the timeline, am informed that the entire registration process will take 2-3 working days.
On returning home, I decode the chassis number using the info the team-bhp’s XEV 9e review post: It tells me that the vehicle was built on Jan 2025. This further disappoints me that the vehicle was sitting for close to 5 months! The fact really saddened my day knowing the snail pace delivery process at PPS Mahindra!

16 May, Fri – Tried calling my SA who didn’t pick up. Shot a text to him to know the status of the registration process and got no reply. At this point, I am pretty sure that the process has not yet started and their promise of initiating the next day itself stands a lie.

17 May, Sat – SA is still not reachable. Shot him text in WhatsApp but there is no reply. I start to get anxious as my wife’s birthday which is on 21st is nearing. My initial plan was to get the vehicle and get the PPF also installed by 21st, but now this doesn’t look possible at all.

18 May, Sun – I escalate the unresponsiveness in the dealership WhatsApp group including the AGM and the GM of the dealership. The AGM responds within 20 mins and assigns me another person to arrange the delivery. This turns out to be the same person S from MEAL. Now, with this new development, I start planning to take the delivery on 21st and also give the vehicle straight to the PPF.

19 May, Mon – Fastag process is initiated.

20 May, Tue – Registration process gets underway, and I am asked to confirm my personal details for the same. For the registration number itself, I proceed to choose a non-fancy running number in the current ongoing series. Come 18:30, I receive an SMS mentioning about the payment of registration tax. On enquiring with dealership about this update, they inform me about the completion of the process and also confirm to deliver the vehicle the next day in evening 16:00.

21 May, Wed – I inform to Rustan @ Ultimate Detailerz about the delivery time. He mentions that he can accommodate me coming over in evening. I reach the dealership at around 16:15 with my wife and daughter. The last bunch of paperwork and payments take another 30 mins.

Snaps from the time of delivery. Red really shines in natural daylight!





The celebrations including the unveiling and the cake cutting take another 20 mins. A person also then took time to explain the features of the vehicle. The showroom had accommodated my two requests: to charge up the vehicle completely and to deliver the vehicle without fixing the number plate. I left the showroom with the green number plates in the boot. The next ~10km were horrifying to drive. The vehicle suddenly felt a lot bigger, and in the peak Bangalore traffic and the zooming 2-wheelers, I was constantly worried about any damage to the body & the paint. I drove slowly to reach the ultimate detailerz where I spent the next hour talking to Rustan about the shape of the vehicle, about PPF, its advantages and the different product lineup within PPF. Finally, left the detailing shop agreeing to get back the vehicle after three days.

22 May, Thu – It was now time to quickly sell my old vehicle, Baleno RS. I had previously enquired with True Value and Mahindra who had offered my 2018 model Baleno RS 4.8L and 4.6L respectively. I was disappointed with both these offers as I saw similarly aged Baleno Alpha quoted for 5.5L+ in various classifieds. I got an appointment for an inspection in cars24 and Spinny for next day hoping for a better quote from these two.

23 May, Fri – Both the inspections from Cars24 and Spinny were complete in evening. I receive a quote on the Spinny app for 4.53L and after some more time receive quote for 3.88L from Cars24. I was sad to say the least. This selling experience was turning out to be very different from the last time I had sold my MS Swift VXI. Back then, Cars 24 had offered me ~2.2L while ML dealer only offered 1.6L. I went to bed planning my next phone calls and figuring out how to get the prices up.

24 May, Sat – Today was the day, when I had to sell my Baleno RS. This was important as I would get the BE6 in the evening and parking spot at my apartment can fit in only one vehicle. I started to engage both representatives from Cars24 and Spinny from around 10am and by around 2pm, had a quote from cars24 for 4.83L. This seemed like the max that I could push them. So, decided to sell the vehicle for this price. The selling procedure itself was a breeze, I dropped the vehicle in the nearest Cars24 hub, where a driver picked it up and transferred the amount through IMPS immediately on handing over the documents. I was really impressed with the speed in which the transaction happened.

A final picture of the instrument cluster of Baleno RS with the odometer reading at 109k km!


Feeling relieved that one work is completed for the day, moved on to the detailing shop to take a look at the BE6. On reaching the shop around 4:30pm, I observed that the final touches were being done by Rustan and his team. The vehicle itself looked one notch better than when I left it three days before. Mosin also joined soon, and we had a good discussion for around an hour.

BE6 after the PPF:



I left the detailing shop and headed straight to the showroom again to get the number plate fixed. With this, the vehicle was now fully legal to begin with the mile munching.

Total Cost to the wallet with the breakdown: For completeness of the information, here is the break-up of all the cost that I incurred for the vehicle purchase.
Ex-showroom Price: ₹27,64,999.66
Total Registration Cost: ₹3,10,577
Insurance (OD3+TP3): ₹1,26,960
Accessories: ₹11,507
PPF (CarPro Immortal PPF for Full Car): ₹1,58,000
Total: ₹33,72,043.66

Reflections on the Buying Experience

• Non-Transparent Process: This is my third vehicle purchase (others via Maruti True Value, Nexa, and Hyundai). Never before did I have to chase every step. Mahindra’s delivery and documentation process is over-complicated, opaque, and frustrating.
• Incompetent Dealership Handling: PPS Mahindra staff often didn’t know the process themselves. Estimated timelines were vague or completely wrong. Documentation delays were frequent. Miscommunication and outright misinformation were common.
• Why No Direct Sales from Mahindra? Mahindra has a stellar product. Why not allow customers to buy directly from the company through a transparent online portal — just like Tesla?

While the BE6 is a brilliant car, the dealership experience stole the joy of the buying process. If there’s one thing I hope Mahindra improves, it’s how their vehicles are delivered — not just in terms of speed, but in transparency, professionalism, and customer care. Would I recommend the BE.06? Yes, for the product. But brace yourself for a rough ride if your dealership is anything like mine.

[adithya.m.bhat]

My First Impressions

When I brought the car home, I knew I had to explore it thoroughly before putting serious miles on it. That evening and the following day were all about understanding the vehicle inside and out — menus, shortcuts, quirks, and all the fun bits in between. I spent nearly two hours in the parking, clicking over every setting to customize the car to my liking. And the deeper I went, the more impressed I was.
Below, I’ve split my impressions into two categories: features that have already proven truly useful, and those that are novel, niche, or quirky, but still worthy of mention. I’ve skipped the standard stuff that’s already well covered in the official Team-BHP review unless it really stood out.

Features / Function that I liked and are incredibly useful

HUD (Heads-Up Display)
The HUD is a gem of a piece and stands out of all the features to me. This is many notches above what the competition offers. It can display not only the vehicle speed, but also an Augmented Reality of the turn directions connected with maps (I have tested with MAPPLS & Android Auto - Google Maps). From the navigation, it also shows up the distance to destination and time to reach the destination. In addition, the traffic signs that are recognized & identified from the front camera are also displayed. The right bottom corner shows the battery remaining State of Charge (SoC) and the estimated remaining range. If no destination is set, then the heading direction is displayed. When a music is played, the track names also appear when there is a change in track. A helpful notification during driving is the vertical orange border line signifying the presence of a vehicle in the blind spot. There are customizations possible with the VisionX menu where the particular information can be enabled/disabled.



Music App & Sound System Integration
The second feature where Mahindra has gone the extra mile is the inbuilt music app and the options surrounding it.



In particular, the VenueScapes option uses the vehicle's sound system to simulate the acoustic environment of one of the three venues.







The stadium venue became my go-to, not for music but also for impressing passengers — I’d clap once, and the echo effect always draws delighted reactions. To me, this is not just a gimmick, as I also use the other venues to listen to my music. There is a noticeable difference between the other settings of 3D immersive, Studio and the VenueScapes.



Within Music, the SonicSuite is something that my family is in love with. This feature allows for interior speakers to emit artificial sound based on the level of Accelerator pedal.



Especially in the roads where there is no internet connection to play the music, I tend to tune to 'V8 Tribute' or 'Race' to hear the grumble of an artificial engine. Quite fun when it’s a windy road actually. A subset of the sounds can also be played via the external speaker!



The first time I played this, the sound wasn’t very loud, so I thought that its just something that people around may not notice with all the road noise. But on later trials I found that the speakers are actually loud. Entire floor of parking can hear the sound and the since the cabin is insulated, less sound is perceived within the cabin.
The third aspect that I constantly use is the integrated Gaana app in the music.



This comes with a 30 day free subscription and I signed up to give it a try. The music quality is great and goes well with the 16 speaker setup. The best part is that the media app itself has the option to explore songs from Gaana making it a seamless experience.





I definitely feel that this is the way to go, as I don’t have to change to Android Auto then navigate to the music app to change the track or explore music.

Windows - Tint, UV, IR and sound insulation
Something that Mahindra didn’t really advertise but definitely deserves praise is the quality of glass in winshield and roof. I was initially concerned about the large panoramic glass roof and its impact on cabin temperature in summer. And thus, when I took for PPF, I had enquired about the available options to apply on the window and the roof glasses. Rustan, being the helpful and passionate guy he is, wanted to check the glass to know its capability first. This is when I discovered that the windows are already of a very high quality. It blocks 100% of Ultraviolet light, 70% of the Infrared light and still lets in 80% of visible light.



That’s impressive on its own, but I was even more surprised to learn that the glass provides acoustic insulation too. (I wonder what's the speciality wrt ADAS?)




HVAC - Smart modes
The HVAC control has two options, the classic tab has all the conventionally available ones including the 2-zone climate control system, defogging options and the seat ventilation. The smart has only three buttons, 'Clear view', 'A/C Max' and 'ECON'.



Of these I have experienced 'Clear view' in one of my drives. It blasts air to the windshields to make the fog disappear real quick while changing the temperature setting to 32.5 deg C. It’s a small but thoughtful feature, especially for Indian monsoons and night driving.

Navigation integration with MAPPLS
The inbuilt navigation app MAPPLS from MapMyIndia has some very interesting and useful features. It not only helps locate charging stations easily but also plans a route and estimates SoC at the destination.





Further, if the destination set is beyond the range of the current battery energy, the route part that can be travelled with current energy is highlighted and differentiated from the route that cannot be travelled. Additionally, chargers are identified in the route to help make till the destination.





One of my favourite features is its warning system for upcoming speed bumps — incredibly helpful for preserving ride comfort and avoiding nasty surprises.

Simultaneous multiple phone connection
Yet another great feature introduced by Mahindra along with the wireless Android Auto, is the support for connection to multiple phones. For instance, I could use one phone for Android Auto and navigation while using another for music streaming. The car also has its own SIM and supports Wi-Fi hotspot creation, though I still need to test how many devices can connect and what kind of internet speeds are achievable.

Performance app
The Performance App is tailored for enthusiasts and offers different dashboards for Racing and Offroad modes. The racing tab shows live tyre pressure and allows timing 0–60 or 0–100 kmph runs.



What makes it interesting is the integration — the timer starts automatically with the accelerator press. The Offroad tab, meanwhile, displays altitude using an aircraft-style gauge, which is both cool and informative on hilly drives.



Carpet lamps
Coming to visual flair, there are two projection lights pointing outside of the front doors.



These, in addition to illuminating the ground also puts messages and designs that look quite cool, especially at night. As I have noticed so far, there are following images:
A welcome sign with two patters that user can choose that’s shown when the car is unlocked and door opened.

Pattern 1 setting..


.. and the effect.


Pattern 2 setting..


..and the subsequent pattern.


A goodbye sign that is triggered when vehicle is switched off and door is opened



If the battery is less than 20% SoC then instead of a goodbye, a battery low image is displayed.



Roof switches
The roof panel houses five shortcut switches that are surprisingly intuitive.



There’s a switch to control whether cabin lights activate on door open, right next to it is the switch to open or close the tail gate, another for hazard lights, one for auto-parking view, and another for toggling the exterior camera feed. These buttons are frequently used and help avoid diving through menus while driving.

Features that are quirky but not used often

ADAS
I put Active Safety feature in here as my driving involves a lot of city and rural driving and <20% where ADAS features can be activated. However, there are some fantastic features that are not seen in some of the cars higher in the price range. One such feature is the slowing of vehicle for navigating in turns. The vehicle when engaged with cruise control and lane assist, automatically slows while turning to navigate through the high speed corner smoother. This give a tremendous sense of confidence in the vehicle. Second feature that I liked is the automatic lane change with the push of indicator switch. These are features you typically find in cars far higher up the price range.

Cameras
With the host of internal and external cameras, Mahindra has given an app called Secure360 which records 3min video when it detects a hazardous situation. Another option that Mahindra did not advertise is the transparent mode. When in exterior camera menu, on clicking the small vehicle button, the opaque vehicle toggles transparent. This feature only works if the vehicle is travelling below 15kmph.
Further the interior cameras can apparently be used for Zoom and Google meet calls! I am waiting for this to be expanded to MS Teams which would allow me to take office calls from car. My daughter is obsessed with the ‘Selfie’ app though — complete with filters, and yes, we have a few silly selfies stored already.

All said and done, this car genuinely feels like it was designed with both tech lovers and real-world users in mind. Mahindra has really put in thought — from features you’ll use every day to hidden gems that surprise you weeks later. As I continue driving and discovering, I’ll share more observations. For now, I’m just glad I took the time to explore every corner of this machine. It’s been worth it.

[adithya.m.bhat]

My Wishlist & Early Glitches (Pre-First Service Update)

Odometer Reading: ~2,700 km

Now that I've spent a decent amount of time with the vehicle and explored most of its menus and features, here’s a quick compilation of things I hope will be added via future software updates, along with a few minor bugs I’ve encountered

Here are the options that I would hope the next few software updates can offer:

1. Secure 360: I’m curious whether Secure360 can evolve into a proper dashcam. It already records short clips during “event” triggers, but if it could record continuously while driving (even if only front + rear views), it’d be a game-changer. Also, is the current camera resolution good enough to capture number plates clearly? That would seal the deal.
2. MS Teams Integration: Zoom and Google Meet are already supported, which is impressive. But adding MS Teams support would genuinely boost in-car productivity for folks like me.
3. Persistent Interior Lighting Option: With my experience, the interior lights turn off after a particular time of the ignition switch OFF. With the doors open, the cabin lights switches off after ~60 seconds while with doors shut, the lights shut off in ~15 seconds. I’d love an override option that allows me to keep the lights on manually. This is particularly useful when loading/unloading luggage at night or installing booster seat for my daughter.
4. Introduce Driver Profile: Include the driver profile to memorize AC setting, seat settings, drive mode, Music source, Seat ventilation setting, and the option of turning on/off of the Cabin light with Door opening. Having all of these tied to the driver profile would elevate the convenience factor by quite a margin.

Bugs & Glitches – Observed Before First Service
The car with all its gizmos is not without its fair share of glitches. With the leap in technology that Mahindra has taken, I feel that they have done a great job already ironing out many of the bugs. That said, here are a few bugs I did experience:

1. Carpet Lamp Graphics Not Displaying (Initially): Carpet lamps didn’t project any graphics in the first few days of ownership.
   
   
   
   I reported this to the Mahindra representative in showroom but nothing came of it. Then — like magic — the graphics started working on their own during a weekend trip to my parents home at Mangalore! No update, no service intervention. Just… self-healing.
2. Tailgate Not Locking Properly (Initially): Another function that was bugging me in initial few days was the tailgate closure. The tailgate would almost shut but for some reason did not latch on. I had to either push it manually or reopen and shut it again. Interestingly, this issue too disappeared on its own during a later visit to my in-laws’ place. Not sure if it was terrain or the warm company. But hey — fixed itself!
3. Brief Blackout on Both Screens: I encountered a black screen on both the screens on the day of my first service.
   
   
   
   The black screen remained for about 30seconds after which all information turned on. No adverse effect was seen on the powertrain controls.

Snap of the Software version for reference:



Final Note
Let me be clear — this isn’t a complaint list. I fully recognize that this is a first-gen tech rollout from Mahindra, and bugs are part of the process. What matters more to me is how fast and gracefully they get resolved. Every new software update is expected to have lesser and lesser bugs and my wish of sharing these is to speed up that process!

Go Mahindra R&D team! you're doing fantastic work!

[adithya.m.bhat]

The initial drives and the first service:

First Weekend Trip – Still exploring new features and the Charging Ecosystem

The first two weeks just zoomed by where I spent most of the time in the car fiddling with all the options to know it better. I took the first weekend to take the car out to my parents who are staying at Mangalore. Despite it being peak monsoon season, with fog rolling into the ghats by nightfall, I had full confidence in the vehicle to get me safely through the Bangalore – Hassan – Shiradi – Mangalore route. I left my office in Whitefield around 3:30 PM with the battery at 100% SoC and reached Mangalore by 1:00 AM, with 17% SoC remaining. I wasn’t exactly driving conservatively either — so I had no complaints about the efficiency over the 365 km distance. Got to experience the booster headlights that turn on above 78kmph, loved the cornering lights in the ghats and was impressed with the clean sweep of the wipers in the heavy downpour. Over the next days, I visited several temples along the coastal belt and had a pooja performed at my favourite one. I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself when I used the remote to drive the car over the lemons—people around were clearly surprised, wondering how the car moved on its own!



For the return leg, I started with 100% battery, reached Hotel ShivSurya (between Sakaleshpura and Hassana) with 58%. That’s where I ran into one of the more annoying quirks of the charging ecosystem. The charging station there has two connectors, but once someone initiates “Flux Charging,” the system locks all the power (120 kW) to a single connector, rendering the second port completely unusable. Now, I get the idea — maximize charging speed for the plugged-in vehicle. But the implementation is deeply flawed. Even if that vehicle is already at a high SoC and only pulling ~40 kW, the second port still remains blocked! So I ended up having to hover around the charger, constantly checking to see if it was finally free. Personally, I’d rather both connectors share 60 kW than be forced to wait due to this inefficiency. On the way to Bangalore, meddled with the Race mode and reached my home with around 22% battery SoC. So, in total I used up 107% of battery which was much more than the 83% that I had consumed in my onward journey. Of course, my heavy right foot had a big role to play in the high energy consumption on both sides. However, the higher energy consumption in the return journey was also because of the climb up the deccan plateau which is an increase of almost a kilometer in elevation.

Second Coastal Trip
In the second weekend, I was a bit more consistent with the speeds for another trip to the coast, this time to my in-laws place. Determined to be more energy-conscious, I stuck to a steady 90 km/h using cruise control on the four-lane stretches. This time, I could manage to reach in 73% of battery SoC on the onward journey and used 95% of battery SoC on the return leg. While I was pleased with the improved efficiency, I’ll admit — it wasn’t exactly fun. The drive felt a bit dull, and I had to force myself to stay light-footed. Clearly, economic driving isn’t my natural style.


Couple of pictures of the vehicle:

[adithya.m.bhat]

First Service Experience – 9th June @ India Garage Whitefield

All these trips, along with a few evening drives on Satellite Ring Road, brought the odometer up to ~2,774 km, which meant I was due for the first free service (scheduled at 2,000 km). I had already booked a slot for June 9th at India Garage, Whitefield.
The service center was packed for the day with many ICE and electric vehicles scheduled for service. I met the service adviser who introduced himself as a Mahindra direct representative, coordinating with the India Garage staff for the service process. The first service included the an inspection, the much anticipated software update with the Apple Carplay and a wash for the vehicle. The Apple Carplay update was very important for the Mrs. as she couldn’t connect via Carplay till now. The update took two full days to be done. Additionally, I also reported that the rear left window doesn’t close when commanded from driver side window switch. The SA confirmed this and mentioned to me that he would order the replacement part and that the replacement would be covered on warranty. I was pleasantly surprised to learn from him that the second free service is scheduled at 12,000 km (10,000 km after the first), and the third at 22,000 km. I received the vehicle on Tuesday evening and boy was I surprised. The music sounded even better now. It had a depth that previously wasn’t observed.

Bill of first free service:



Post-Update Observations:
Software Version for reference:

1. Addition of no regen level: In addition to L1, L2, L3 and 1 pedal mode, a new ‘No regen’ mode is added.
   
   
   
   
2. New display for cabin AQI: Clicking on the AQI in HVAC controls now opens a new dial elaborating the AQI value and the ranges.
   
   
   
   
3. In the Custom tab of the Audio setting, a new disabled option to ‘center’ the audio cabin focus is available now.
   
   
   
   
4. Settings now has the option to set the units individually.
   
   
   
   

Bugs & Erros:

1. Missing Options in Exterior Vehicle Menu (Initial Occurrence): On the first drive home from the service center, I noticed that a few options were inexplicably missing from the menus — specifically, the Driver Assistance and Battery Energy submenus.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Oddly enough, just like some of the “self-healing” bugs I’ve seen before, this issue resolved itself overnight and hasn’t resurfaced since.
   
   
2. Dual Roof Ambient Light – Limited Functionality: The dual-color ambient lighting for the roof only seems to work when the mode is set to ‘Static.’
   
   
   
   
   
   In all other modes — such as wave, Impulse or Glow — only a single color is projected.
   
   
   
   
   
   It’s not a major issue, but it does somewhat limit the mood lighting options the feature was meant to offer.
   
   
3. Wi-Fi Connection Glitch (One-Time Incident): I ran into a strange one-time bug involving a relentless pop-up error. This happened after I started the car and briefly stepped outside with my phone, which was still trying to connect via Android Auto.
   
   
   
   
   
   The pop-ups were relentless until I manually disabled both Bluetooth and the hotspot from the dropdown settings menu. Thankfully, the glitch hasn’t returned since.
   
   
4. Altitude Unit Mismatch: Despite selecting ‘meters’ as the preferred unit in the settings, the altimeter continues to display values in imperial units. It’s a small oversight, but given that this software update specifically added the ability to customize units, it feels like a bug that slipped through.
   
   Below reference is a snapshot, where i set the altitude in meters, but the Altimeter in the performance app still shows in feet unit.
   
   
   
   

Reiterating — this isn’t a complaint. I fully recognize that this is a first-gen tech rollout from Mahindra, and bugs are part of the process. What matters more to me is how fast and gracefully they get resolved. Every new software update is expected to have lesser and lesser bugs and my wish of sharing these is to speed up that process!

[adithya.m.bhat]

Experiment 1: The Charging Speed

Theory:
Electric Vehicles (EVs) typically don’t draw their full rated charging power throughout the entire State of Charge (SoC) range. In fact, the closer the battery gets to 100%, the slower it charges. It’s well-known that maximum power is usually pulled somewhere in the low to mid range of SoC, and that tapers off as the battery fills up.

Objective:
I wanted to see this in action — to understand firsthand how charging power varies with SoC. I began with the BE6 already at a relatively high SoC of 72%, and sought out a powerful charger to observe how much juice the car could really pull. Found one at the Hyundai DC fast charging station at Yediyur (on the Bangalore–Hassan highway), inside the MTR 1924 hotel premises.



The setup there is solid: two stations, each with dual connectors. The first has a 150kW and a 30kW connector, while the second station offers 60kW and 30kW options.

Methodology:
The process was simple. Plug in the 150kW connector, load up some ₹₹ in the Static app, and start charging. Right after initiating the session, I snapped a photo of the charger screen. It showed:

• Power: 89kW
• Voltage: 465V (demand), 444.8V (output)
• Current: 200A (both demand and output approx.)

Bit of a mystery why the car didn’t go all-in on the 150kW, but I decided to let that slide — the next priority was placing a dose order . While waiting, I kept the ME4U app open and recorded the SoC at every significant power drop.

Observation:
Below are my real-time observations (recorded while enjoying a crispy masale dose and transferred to a spreadsheet for readability):



Even though I never saw the full 150kW, the drop-off started quite sharply from 82% onwards — with the charger delivering just 46kW by then. From 90% to 97%, the power plateaued at around 30kW, then gradually slid down to 22kW and trickled all the way to zero as we hit full charge.

Result:
The charging power does follow the expected bell curve, peaking somewhere lower on the SoC and then tapering as the battery nears 100%. This car in particular started declining significantly at just 82% SoC — which is good insight for anyone planning quick top-ups on long trips.

Conclusion:
This experiment confirmed what many EV owners suspect — the charging curve isn’t linear, and fast-charging doesn't stay “fast” all the way to 100%. Once you’re past 80–85%, the power drop is pretty steep, and from 90% onward it’s basically a trickle. So, if you're planning a quick top-up during a road trip, it’s smarter to unplug once you hit ~85% and get moving — the time vs gain after that just isn’t worth it. Full charges are better left to overnight AC charging at home — not something to chase at public fast chargers.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[VnsAlpha9]

What an Extensive and detailed coverage. Heartiest congratulations on the car and the patience and perseverance you had during the entire process.

Enjoy your ride.

[anivy]

A decidedly detailed, wonderfully written and thoroughly helpful thread, Adithya. Appreciate the effort & time you put into this.

[ashishsGT]

Hey Adi! Congratulations on your new acquisition and glad to have you onboard. A stonker of a post to kickstart your journey, insanely detailed and on the dot. May every mile bring a smile!

[Hayek]

Congrats on a wonderful car, and thanks a million for a brilliantly written review. Don’t think the mods could have done a better job in terms of attention to detail. Enjoy many thousands of miles of fun motoring in this car - based on my brief test drive, it is amongst the best drivers cars available in the Indian market.

If you have spent time with your father’s Ioniq 5, do post some comparisons - would be interesting to read. Please keep posting!

[aryayush]

Every time I purchase a new car, I think of writing an ownership review here, but the prospect of doing so is so daunting that I've never been able to do it.

Cheers to you for writing such a fantastic and detailed review! You are an excellent writer too, which made reading it all the more enjoyable.

It's a striking and beautiful vehicle and your review answered a lot of my questions about it (though I'm not currently in the market for one). Wish you luck with your ownership of it!

[Mahindra Boi]

Originally Posted by adithya.m.bhat

This experiment confirmed what many EV owners suspect — the charging curve isn’t linear, and fast-charging doesn't stay “fast” all the way to 100%. Once you’re past 80–85%, the power drop is pretty steep, and from 90% onward it’s basically a trickle.

Great insights! Could you also share how much the charging session cost you? I'm considering the Harrier.ev, and it’d be helpful to know what to expect in terms of real-world fast-charging expenses.