Mahindra Plans More EVs This Year

Mahindra and Mahindra said that it is expediting some of its new electric vehicles projects and now wants to work on all new electric vehicles made for India.

While interacting with the media at the Q1 earnings conference of the group, Pawan Goenka the MD of Mahindra and Mahindra said that the company plans to have a new range of electric vehicles alongside it’s budget-friendly eVerito for the Indian consumers. The range will include three-wheelers, small commercial vehicles and new personal vehicles.

“We are looking at how we increase our three-wheeler EV portfolio. On the four-wheeler portfolio, we only have an electric Verito now. By the end of this year, we will launch the electric KUV followed by S210 (electric version of XUV300) a year later, then an E-Aspire (from Ford partnership) six months after that. We are also working at the back end at the factory level. We are localizing motor, battery, power electronics, transmission,” said Goenka and reported by the Indian daily ET.

The announcement follows the GST council’s decision taken last month to reduce the rates on EVs from 18% to 5% and EV chargers from 12% to 5% also. The rate cut has encouraged the auto companies in the EV space to invest in new product research and development. And with the slump in demand for petrol and diesel cars, more partnerships or JVs between auto manufacturers can be expected to jointly develop electric vehicles

With the new BS-VI emission norms coming soon, many car companies will be scrambling to develop new and more efficient internal combustion engine cars or divert funds towards new electric vehicles for which the government, as well as various state governments, are offering sops.

Mahindra also indicated that the Indian auto space is facing a lot of challenges but there is no stopping on investment in new products.