Mahindra plans to launch fully-electric version of this SUV next year

PTI

Mumbai, May 30

Home-grown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Monday said it is planning to launch the fully electric version of its XUV 300 SUV in the first quarter of the next year.

The company also announced that it will unveil its electric vehicle business strategy, ‘Born Electric Vision’ of EV concept in August this year.

The Mumbai-headquartered company has recently partnered with Volkswagen to explore the use of the latter’s modular electric drive matrix (MEB) components that can be used in its electric cars.

MEB electric platform and its components allow car manufacturers to build their portfolio of electrified vehicles, quickly and cost-effectively.

“We will be launching the electric version of XUV 300, which we hope to have in the first quarter of the next calendar year,” M&M executive Director Rajesh Jejurikar said at a media conference on Monday.

He said that though it is called the electric version of XUV 300, it is a 4.2 metre in length vehicle and not sub-4 metre.

Jejurikar said the company is going to reveal the ‘Born Electric Vision’ in the UK on August 15.

The company plans to roll out 13 SUVs by 2027 with eight of them to be electric SUVs.

Jejurikar said the recently launched XUV 700 has seen only 10-12 per cent cancellations despite a waiting period of 18-24 months.

“XUV 700 has been a huge success and even with the kind of period we have now, which is 18-24 months and despite producing 5,000 vehicles a month, we are getting bookings of more than 9,000-10,000 units every month,” he said.

He said that the AX variant of XUV 700, which has more than 700 semiconductors, has seen the maximum bookings as compared to just 5 per cent bookings for the MX variant of the newly launched SUV.

He, however, said that the waiting period will come down with the company ramping up the capacity as semiconductor supplies are expected to improve further.

He said that the chip shortage has improved significantly as the company has diversified supply sources.

The company, however, believes that the worst is over as far as the semiconductor shortage was concerned.

In its bid to remain on the growth trajectory and meet the customer’s expectations, the company has lined up an additional investment of Rs 1,900 crore to scale up production capacity, including of XUV and some other products.

The company said it has lined up a capex of Rs 17,000 crore under its three-year plan, FY22-24.

Stating that the company wants to be a global player in the SUV space and the vehicles it has launched last year are “world class” vehicles, M&M Ltd Managing Director and CEO, Anish Shah said, “to be a global player we need to ensure that the waiting period (for the company’s vehicles) in India comes down.”

The company is not taking out capacity from India for the global market but it is building it, he said, adding, “We will have a global play with the current vehicles and as we move to EVs as well.”

“Our expectation is that our EV will get the same level of demand that we have seen for some of our current vehicles. We will be a strong player globally in the EVs (also) that we will build over a period of time,” said Shah.

He also said that there is a long way to go for the electric four-wheeler segment. “We don’t have a series of electric platforms in India. They will come as it happens. We have a strong range of electric vehicles that we will bring in.” he said.

On the prospects of electric scooter for the domestic market, the company said there were no such plans in the immediate term but did not rule it out at some later stage.

Mahindra & Mahindra on Saturday reported a nearly five-fold jump in standalone profit at Rs 1,192 crore for quarter ended March 31, 2022.

The company had posted a profit of Rs 245 crore in the year-ago period, it said.

Revenue grew 28 per cent to Rs 17,124 crore in the period under review as compared to Rs 13,356 crore in March quarter 2020-21, it added.

M&M said it achieved the highest ever standalone revenue for auto and farm segments at Rs 55,300 crore for FY22, which is 29 percent higher than previous year’s. It also said the company’s auto business delivered the highest ever quarterly UV (utility vehicle) volumes in Q4 with 42 percent YoY growth.