M&M MD Anish Shah promises 'Wow EVs', says India will lead on sustainability

Anish Shah, MD and Group CEO of Mahindra Group, says India has taken the lead in building a sustainable planet. While the rest of the world has made commitments and has gone back on some, but India stands firm. On Tuesday, Shah unveiled its new range of electric-origin SUVs in Chennai under the theme of ‘Unlimit India’.

"India has been a leader for centuries; it is our time to lead again. Over the next five years, India will add as much GDP to the world as the European Union. We will be the third-largest economy in the world," he added. 

On the EVs, Shah said, "At Mahindra, we are unbounded, we are dreaming big. We want to create products that wow, something outstanding that customers didn't expect. For us, that is our dream: to be bold, agile, and work together."

Shah said that 25 years ago, all the major global players started entering India, and M&M had to compete with them.

Today, "we can stand tall to say that we make products that are the best in the world from a quality standpoint. In technology, the innovation we have seen in India over the years has only grown with time to the point where they are creating very high-quality products."

He added that the Indian customer's validation for Mahindra can be seen in volumes, market share, and a long waiting period. 

Mahindra & Mahindra has committed to an investment of over Rs 12,000 crore in its electric vehicle business. The company is setting up an all-new manufacturing line for EVs at its Chakan plant, which has an installed capacity of 1.2 lakh units per annum and is scalable. 

Over 2,200 engineers have worked on the EV project for over three years to deliver four products, two of which – XEV 9e and BE 6e are being unveiled. 

The company worked with over 168 suppliers, including 110 software suppliers. The Strategic Sourcing Unit developed over 5,000 tools to design the products.

"Never have we achieved such a scale of operations. The production team has set up a completely brand-new body shop or the TCF line in Chakan to productionise these vehicles," said R Velusamy, president of automotive technology and product development for Mahindra & Mahindra.