Mahindra Electric to double EV capacity to 60,000 units, plans battery plant

Mahindra Electric, the electric vehicle arm of the Mahindra Group, has announced plans to expand its manufacturing capacity to 60,000 units per annum within a span of 18 months.

The company’s existing plant in Bangalore, which produces the e2O and e20 Plus, can currently make 500 units a month. With EV batteries being the critical and the most expensive component in an EV, there are also plans to set up an EV battery pack plant in a bid to enhance localisation levels and reduce overall vehicle costs.

Speaking at a media tele-conference today, with the recent EESL order for 10,000 EVs as the focus, Dr Pawan Goenka, managing director, Mahindra & Mahindra, and chairman of Mahindra Electric, said, “The EESL tender is very good for India and puts the country into the global EV map. We have been making EVs for over five years and have almost been on a crusade for EVs.”

Dr Goenka, who is optimistic about growth for electric passenger cars in India, said there has been a decent uptick in demand after the government’s push on electro-mobility. He said M&M is seeing consumer demand for EVs grow from both fleet buyers as well as personal car buyers. He cited the instance of 54 Mahindra e2Os which are plying with shared mobility provider Ola in Nagpur since May and have clocked 700,000km since then.

Dr Goenka said in a bid to make its EVs affordable, the company is looking to localise all components except for battery cells. This will ensure that as much as 85 percent of all Mahindra EVs will be local content. In line with this localisation strategy, M&M is actively exploring setting up a 100-percent M&M-owned EV battery pack plant in India and joint ventures with partners for manufacture of motors and power electronics.