Mahindra is planning to invest heavily in the Electric Vehicle market in the next three years. According to a media report, the brand is looking to invest close to INR 3,000 crore to develop more alliances and partnerships. Apart from the new collaborations, Mahindra is also looking to develop a new EV platform.
Mahindra has already invested close to INR 1,700 Crore in the Electric Vehicle vertical. The additional INR 3,000 will bring the brand’s goal of rolling out 5 lakh electric vehicles by 2025, closer. Another investment of INR 500 crore has already been made for a new research and development (R&D) centre. The brand is already producing motors, battery packs and power electronics at the electric technologies plant in Bengaluru. Mahindra is also investing in upgrading the Chakan plant for Electric Vehicle production. The brand earlier said it was investing INR 9,000 crore in the auto and farm sectors in the next five years.
Mahindra will also be focusing on fully electric SUVs developed under Pininfarina, the brand’s Italian subsidiary. Mahindra will be learning from the technology Pininfarina uses on the Batista all-electric luxury supercar. The technology will then trickle down to electric SUV bound for the Indian market. The new segment will be S-LUV or Sustainable Luxury Utility Vehicle and will hover around the price tag of INR 40 lakh. The new S-LUV segment is likely to arrive in 2022. According to the brand, electric vehicles will become mainstream and sales will overtake petrol & diesel-powered vehicles, by 2030.
In March 2021, Mahindra’s passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and exports sales stood at 40,403 units. Compared to March 2020 the brand registered sales of 6,679 units. This year the brand sold 16,700 units in the passenger vehicle segment this includes utility vehicles, cars and vans. Mahindra is now in the number four spot with a 5.8% market share in the passenger vehicle segment. The brand has also revealed that it will only produce pure-bred SUVs and not sedans or mini-SUVs.
Also Read: Mahindra says electric cars in India would become mainstream by 2030