Customers are concerned about range anxiety, and are overwhelmingly going for the larger battery variants.
06 May 2025 | 1466 Views | By Darshan Nakhwa and Ketan Thakkar
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, which is getting the overwhelming share of bookings for its recently introduced BE 6 and XEV 9e at the top-end “Pack 3” variant, it's likely to create new variants to make its sales mix more balanced.
Despite healthy inquiries for the lower-priced variants, consumers appear ...
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Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, which is getting the overwhelming share of bookings for its recently introduced BE 6 and XEV 9e at the top-end “Pack 3” variant, it's likely to create new variants to make its sales mix more balanced.
Despite healthy inquiries for the lower-priced variants, consumers appear hesitant to commit without seeing the vehicles in person. “They do not get converted right now into bookings because people do want to see the vehicles before they book,” said Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director and CEO of the company’s Auto and Farm Sectors.
Mahindra has outlined a staggered delivery schedule for the two models, with Pack 3 deliveries having started in mid-March 2025. Pack 3 Select vehicles will arrive in June, Pack 2 in July. Both 'Pack 1 Above' and Pack 1 variants will start in August. So far the automaker has delivered 6,300 electric SUVs.
“In the current bookings, the mix is still very skewed to the top end – more than 75% are for Pack 3,” Jejurikar said. “We believe that the mix will start changing when we put out display and test drive vehicles of Pack 2 and Pack 1.”
Mahindra’s sales in the ongoing quarter are expected to reflect this skewed demand. “For some period of time a large amount of the volumes that we sell will have a mix similar to this. So, the quarter 4 sales and the quarter 1 sales, is Pack 3 only,” he said.
The company is already planning a strategic shift to balance the mix and grow volumes. “To start growing volumes, we will have to have a reasonable mix in Pack 1 and Pack 2. We will saturate at a price point which you will not be able to sustain high volumes at…We will have to start getting at least 25-30% of our volumes from Pack 2 and Pack 1,” he said.
One of the most significant learnings for the company so far has been consumer preference for extended driving range over features. Jejurikar revealed that Mahindra may need to rethink its product variants to meet this unexpected demand.
“There is a very large segment of people who will want 79 kWh in lower packs. This has been very different from the assumption in which we went – that 79 kWh will be only in the top end and everything else will be 59 kWh. There is a segment of people for whom range is really important over many of the other features that we are offering,” he said.
To address this, Mahindra may need to introduce new versions that offer the 79 kWh battery—capable of delivering over 500 km of range—paired with fewer technological features to make them more affordable.
“That’s a big, big differentiation. Nobody else has 79 kWh, and a 79 kWh which is giving the kind of range that our customers are beginning to experience is a big selling point because it breaks range anxiety,” he said. The company believes this re-varianting approach could unlock a broader customer base and drive higher volumes.