Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is contemplating setting up a battery plant for its electric vehicles (EVs). The company will be evaluating the viability of a plant and will then look into partnerships. 

“We are going to look at the next phase on whether we should have a battery plant or not. The inclination is that we should have. But we need to verify the inclination through a lot of data and analysis on the benefits of doing and make the final call. Then the question is with whom and what technology we should use,” said Dr Anish Shah, Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Mahindra Group, during the analyst meeting. 

Volkswagen tie-up

Mahindra & Mahindra, in 2022, collaborated with Volkswagen to explore an alliance to accelerate electrification in the country and supply MEB (Volkswagen open platform for EVs) electric components for Mahindra’s EVs. 

“We have said that we would have a conversation with Volkswagen on localising cells in India. That hasn’t made a lot of progress yet. Volkswagen has multiple giga plants coming across the world, so it does have bandwidth issues to get that going before it starts focusing on India. We would evaluate it going forward, if we want to do that with a partner,” said Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director and CEO, Auto & Farm Sector of M&M Ltd, during the analyst meeting. 

Volkswagen, in 2023, had announced that it is in advanced talks with the Mahindra group for the use of its key MEB components such as the e-drive and the unified cells for its models.

M&M plans to start selling its Born electric vehicles in 2025 and will introduce Born Electric (BE), XUV.e, and THAR.e, SCORPIO.e and BOLERO.e. 

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