Visited the Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai: A memorable experience

We were shown a graph of different diesel engine cars and their NVH levels. In this slide, the NVH of Mahindra Thar Roxx was certainly better than the XUV700 and Scorpio N.

BHPian dieselteen recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Hello everyone,

Before sharing my experience, I would like to thank M&M and Motor Vikatan for hosting this event.

Motor Vikatan recently hosted a workshop in partnership with Mahindra to share their learnings from innovating the new Thar ROXX. This is the 8th edition of the workshop, the previous iterations were about other recent launches from Mahindra including facelifts like 3XO.

Starting with the journey, Motor Vikatan has arranged buses from a few points which I found was a great gesture as it would be useful for everyone. They informed us that we would be boarding around 6:30 AM from the Motor Vikatan office, but we only started by 7:30 AM which is a delay of around an hour. The next stop was at the MRV by 9:30 AM, At the entrance, there was a security check where they used stickers to block the camera lenses and gave us ID cards.

Now as we were inside, they provided us with some refreshments like coffee/tea, biscuits and a slice of sandwich. After the small refreshment break, we were asked to be seated in the MRV auditorium. They had scheduled around 10 sessions where the first 5 would be of theory and the last 5 would be walkarounds of selected labs.

We started with the first 5 theory sessions

The first session was taken by Dr V. Vikraman, Engineering Head - Vehicle Mechanical Systems of Born EV and ICE platforms of M&M. He provided a thorough explanation of the M_GYLDE platform and the ride and handling department.

After the first session, we had a very brief virtual session with Mr R. Velusamy, Chief of Global Product Development – Automotive Division at Mahindra & Mahindra. One interesting point he made was that they used the Skoda Kodiaq as the benchmark for the XUV700.

After this, we had 3 sessions lined up continuously, safety, NVH and a general session about all important aspects of a car like ride and handling, and a few other bits. In one slide, they compared Thar ROXX with the LC300, LR Defender, and its major so-called rival the Jeep Wrangler and explained its competence with those cars.

Then we were sent to their cafeteria where they arranged a full-course lunch. During the lunch break, we got to experience the new Thar ROXX in and out which was there for display.

After lunch, we were all set for the 5 R&D sessions

First was the fatigue lab, where they tested the durability of various car components like the dashboard, suspension, chassis, and axles. As MRV serves as an R&D facility for both ADPD (automotive division product development) and FDPD (farming division product development), we were able to spot a lot of tractor equipment being tested there.

Next was the Powertrain, they had kept many engines for the display and there were 4 divisions (IIRC) inside the Powertrain facility alone. Those are Development, benchmarking, durability, and emissions. First, when a new powertrain is developed, it is benchmarked against the expected output numbers. Then, it undergoes durability testing, followed by emissions testing.

On our way to the next lab, I was able to spot the Benchmarking Lab, they explained about this lab in the theory session, where we found many cars including a red Kodiaq, base white Seltos, kinetic yellow Jimny and some other vehicles (which I'm not able to recollect) residing over there.

Now over to the NVH lab, where they took us to the room where they measure all the acoustics of a vehicle. This room was full of insulating materials and was raised from the ground with more insulating materials. During the NVH theory session, they showed a graph of different diesel engine cars and their NVH, in this slide the Thar ROXX's NVH was portrayed much better than 'JW diesel' (as they have mentioned) and was certainly better than the XUV7OO and Scorpio N.

The pre-climax was the electric powertrain facility, here they took us around the lab where they develop batteries. Where I was, ironically out of charge.

Now coming to the Climax of the lab sessions

This is where I had the most fun, it was written as the automation lab. We found various interiors, lighting parts and a few little gadgetries of the new upcoming BEVs and we went to another room in the same facility where they had their tech for ADAS and Adrenox. We interacted with one of the crew over that lab about the absence of a physical switch for XUV7OO's seat ventilation.

Within the MRV campus, we had a great time exploring the new BEVs, both from the outside and getting a glimpse of some internal features as well.

This workshop happened on September 28th, and let’s just say it took longer than expected to wrap up this post, thanks to my academic workload (with procrastination laughing in the background), to make things worse, I lost the paper in which I wrote my whole experience in detail (ugh!). Right now, I'm using my rain holidays to finish this post before my internal exams crash next week.

A special mention to the folks at MRV who welcomed us happily and answered all our questions passionately.

Honestly, me and my friends stood out at the workshop since everyone else was from the mechanical department, while we came from CSE and ECE.

To wrap things up, my friends and I had an awesome time at the workshop. Over 200 people from all corners of Tamil Nadu showed up, making it a day to remember.

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