Mahindra has been betting big on its electric SUVs and rightly so. We drove these cars recently and were mighty impressed with the overall product. The cars will soon be on Indian roads, but meanwhile, Mahindra had arranged for a Tech Day where they showcased all the technology that has gone into the development of these cars. It was a 2-day event that took place in Mahindra’s factory in Chakan, Pune. This is where as of now, the batteries are being assembled and the cars are also being manufactured. Let’s take a look at the highlights of the event. Do share some additional technical highlights that you can from the pictures.
Day 1
Of course, the two cars in question were parked at the venue. Both cars share the same INGLO architecture and despite the different sizes, they both have the same wheelbase:
There were a total of 8 stalls displaying details of different areas of the car:
We’ll start off with the display of the inclined chassis of the INGLO architecture:
A closer look at the inside. You can see the steering mechanism and the HVAC mechanism as well:
On the other side, you can see the remaining part of the HVAC unit and also the brake booster unit on the left:
A look at the front suspension system and the frame:
This was just a miniature mode assembly of the car displaying the suspension and braking systems:
A cut section of the front and rear suspension. These are continuously variable semi-active dampers. There’s a solenoid valve at the bottom (green-coloured switch) that is responsible for performing continuous variable damping:
This is the front suspension system. Mahindra claims that the system has the highest suspension travel of 185 mm:
If you look closely, you can see that the lower control arm is split into 2 links. This allows the engineers to tune the comfort and handling characteristics separately:
As you can see, the steering rack is mounted in the front of the front axle which is something that’s possible on EVs and not IC engine cars. Without getting into much detail, the front-mounted steering rack improves high-speed understeer. With a rear-wheel drive car, you don’t want oversteer where the rear end steps out:
This is the independent multi-link (5 links) rear suspension assembly. The rear suspension has a travel of 205 mm:
The horizontal link that you see in front of the strut is the toe link that is claimed to improve camber linearity. Even the sub-frame design is claimed to have been optimized for battery protection in case of a rear crash:
A look at the frame in detail. The red arrows that you see here show the load path in case of a frontal crash. The green arrows show the load path in case of a side pole impact:
In case of a frontal impact, there are three major zones in the front of the car – crumple zone, absorption zone and resistance zone. In the absorption zone, Mahindra has added a cradle load path which is the part that you see in the middle. This cradle basically crumbles below and is claimed to provide 3x energy absorption in comparison with ICE cars:
As mentioned earlier, the green lines display the load path for side impact. Note that the battery pack also acts as a part of the frame and hence adds to the rigidity of the structure. The load distribution is 52% by the structure and 48% by the battery pack frame:
This is the BIW material distribution model of the BE 6. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the exact distribution of different types of steels:
There was also a demonstration of the airbag deployment sequence. The basic idea is that in different types of crashes, the sensors relay the message to the airbag ECU which in turn sends signals to the respective airbags and also cuts off the high-voltage system:
This multilayer sheet that is placed above the inverter is claimed to reduce the noise and improve NVH:
Here’s a look at the steering system. It has a turning circle of less than 10 meters and has 2.65 turns from lock to lock. You also get a rack assist motor for better response. Note that the cars come with ADAS features and also auto park assist:
The steering rack has a variable gear ratio. This means that the pitch is narrow in the middle and wider towards the ends:
Here’s a better explanation of the variable gear ratio:
This is the steering column assembly:
The INGLO platform cars get brake by wire. This includes an integrated electronic brake booster. This assembly that you see here has a brake booster, vacuum pump and ESC controls integrated. Also, next to it, you can see the front brake caliper:
Here’s the rear brake caliper and the brake discs. The discs have a tiger claw design for better thermal stability:
These are the wheel hub assemblies for driven and non-driven wheels. Externally, there’s not much difference, but they are different on the inside:
The tyres have foam in them to reduce noise levels. The claimed reduction is 3-4 decibels:
Here’s a look at the Gen 2 compressor along with other parts of the HVAC system. You have the water pump at the back right and the chiller at the right:
Here’s a look at the HVAC assembly:
You have an active grill shutter assembly. This reduces aerodynamic drag by closing the grille opening area to the required level at higher speeds. This helps in improving the range:
A look at the compressor and the chiller with electronic expansion valve:
