Mahindra & Mahindra is creating a new structure for its electric vehicle business by setting up two different verticals, one for last-mile mobility, and the other being an EV tech centre, the company said on Wednesday.

This is in the backdrop of auto majors across the globe announcing how electrification will be the cornerstone of their future strategies.

“The Mahindra Group is readying itself for a world where EVs will evolve through different adoption curves with different trajectories across segments. In a communication to employees, Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director of M&M, announced setting up of two verticals,” the company said in a statement.

Also read: India can become electric mobility hub: Pawan Goenka

The last-mile mobility vertical will be led by Mahesh Babu, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Mahindra Electric. This vertical will have “end-to-end responsibility” of last-mile products such as Treo, Alfa and Atom.

Product planning

The electric tech centre will function like a software development centre, which will involve product planning and various other capabilities for M&M’s electric vehicle portfolio. It will be focussed on converting the company’s existing internal combustion engine (ICE) SUVs into electric vehicles and also coming up with new battery electric vehicles. This tech centre will be led by Pankaj Sonalkar, CEO, Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturing Ltd.

Details to be firmed up

In the next few weeks, many details, including the strategy, organisation structuring, and execution will be firmed up, M&M said in its statement. In recent times, M&M has been stressing how there would be a significant focus on EVs going forward. For instance, M&M had conveyed during a press conference on January 1 that it will be going back to its core business of SUVs, coupled with a strong focus on electric vehicles and the domestic market.

Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra, had said that M&M plans to build a strong SUV portfolio based on EVs. “We all realised that the EV space is going to be the future, we would want to strongly play out a strategy to lead in the EV SUV space and that’s the area we would like to focus our resources on,” Jejurikar had also said then.

The company has been emphasising on capital allocation in recent times. M&M’s move to set up two new verticals for its EV business can be seen in this context.

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