Autoportal India

After having waited for the electric Mahindra KUV100, we now have some news related to EVs from Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. While the KUV100 will have to wait a little longer, the XUV300 is set to undergo the EV transformation. At an event where the company announced their Q4 sales results, it was revealed that XUV300 electric will be launched early next year. With the recent push in EVs, Mahindra would be looking at getting a piece of the pie for themselves as well.

Another big piece of information that came out of the event is that the electric avatar of XUV300 will be 4.2 metres in length while its internal combustion engine version is 3.9 metres long. Due to the increased length, excise duty will be charged, but this also means more space inside the cabin and could be powered by a bigger, long-range battery. One of the closest competitors of Mahindra’s XUV300 electric would be the Tata Nexon EV. Even though the Nexon EV is a sub-4-meter compact SUV, the XUV300 EV should sit in the same price bracket. If Mahindra wants to stay competitive, it will have to offer a range of 400km or more since the newly launched Nexon EV Max has a claimed range of 437km per charge.

Talking about Tata Motors, Mahindra seems to be taking a page out of their book by betting on the XUV300 EV. Tata Motors has managed to move a lot of EVs by launching products that are relatively affordable compared to other EVs. While most manufacturers in the country are struggling to move double-digit numbers, Tata Motors managed to sell 3,357 EVs in March. Now Mahindra aims to follow in the same footsteps and make a compact SUV that is also affordable.

Mahindra has already tried its hand at making electric four-wheelers before and has not found much success. They had acquired Reva and produced cars like the e2o and the e-Verito but neither product managed to gain too much traction in the market. However, times have changed as there is a lot more demand for EVs now and the infrastructure has improved as well. At the current pace, the Indian automotive landscape will be much more suited for EVs by the start of 2023.

We know that Mahindra is going to reveal their Born Electric Platform sometime in July and also give us a glimpse of new electric vehicles built on this platform. One of those vehicles is going to be the electric version of the XUV300. Further helping the company’s endeavours in the electric passenger cars segment will be their recent collaboration with Volkswagen. Under the agreement, Mahindra will be able to source key components and technologies from the German carmaker and employ it in their EVs.