Mahindra & Mahindra will launch the electric version of its KUV1OO hatchback in about a year’s time.

This will make the KUV1OO Electric, the third car in M&M’s electric car portfolio along with the Mahindra E2o-plus and Mahindra e-Verito.

“For all the cross-over SUVs in our portfolio, we will be working on an electric vehicle and so the KUV1OO in its electric avatar will be launched in little over a year’s time from now,” said Pawan Goenka, MD.

Referring to the tender from state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) for 10,000 electric cars, he added that such tenders floated by the Central and State governments are very encouraging.

M&M along with Tata Motors recently bagged a tender from EESL.

In the first phase of the contract, Tata Motors was awarded a contract of 250 cars, while M&M won a 150-car bid.

“The drive towards electrification is visible, whether it is 20 per cent or 100 per cent (by 2030), one does not know about the penetration, but irrespective of that Mahindra will be ready with its electric car portfolio, including the cross-overs which will have electric drive-train,” Goenka said. On Tuesday, M&M launched the KUV1OO NXT, 21 months after first introducing the entry model Mahindra KUV100 in the Indian markets.

The new KUV1OO NXT is priced starting at ₹4.39 lakh for the petrol variant and ₹5.39 lakh for the diesel version. The introductory launch prices are for the first three months and are expected to rise after that, M&M said. An automatic variant is expected to be launched in the next six to eight months.

The new NXT is offered as a six-seater. The model also gets touchscreen infotainment system as standard with GPS navigation feature.

M&M said that the development of its 1.5-litre petrol engines has been accelerated and that they will be debuting it in 2018, while the 2.0-litre engine is scheduled for a 2019 introduction.

(The writer is interning at BusinessLine.)

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