Mahindra Clocks 30,179 BE 6 And XEV 9e Bookings On First Day Itself
About 73% of the Mahindra EV bookings were for the top-end variants of the BE 6 and the XEV 9e models. Deliveries will start in mid-March.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. has witnessed a bumper response to their electric-origin SUVs, bookings for which opened on Friday.
As many as 30,179 Mahindra BE 6 and XUV 9e SUVs, worth Rs 8,472 crore, were booked on the first day, India’s largest SUV maker by revenue said in a statement. That compares with the nearly one lakh electric cars that were sold in the country in all of 2024.
While 56% of the bookings were for the feature-loaded and luxurious XEV 9e, the remaining 44% were for the sportier yet cheaper BE 6. About 73% of the bookings were for the top-end variants of both models. Deliveries of these electric SUVs will start in mid-March.
One of the buyers today was Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who congratulated Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra for the EV overdrive. “Congratulations, Anand Mahindra sir, for making an irresistible EV,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. He has booked the top variant of the XEV 9e for himself. “Waiting for this,” he said.
First unveiled in late November 2024, the Mahindra BE 6 and XEV 9e—priced at Rs 18-30 lakh depending on the variant—are the first serious attempts by the Bolero maker to break away from its diesel-guzzling ways. The company has spent Rs 4,500 crore, or a fourth of its EV investment planned between 2022-27, towards the development of these vehicles.
M&M has set up a production capacity of 90,000 units/annum at its Chakan plant for the BE 6 and XEV 9e. That can be scaled to 1.2 lakh/annum as per demand.
The SUVs are built for an electric powertrain from the ground up, packing in serious battery power and features to boot. They get two battery pack options—59 kWh and 79 kWh—which are good enough for a real-world range in excess of 500 km. They will rival the likes of the Tata Curvv and the recently launched Maruti Suzuki eVitara and Hyundai Creta Electric in the mid-size electric SUV space.
To be sure, Mahindra's electric SUVs haven’t been without their fair share of controversy.
The Mahindra BE 6 was unveiled as ‘BE 6e,’ but that moniker didn’t go down well with IndiGo Airlines, which claimed the ‘6e’ trademark as its own.
On Dec. 3, 2024, IndiGo’s operator, InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., filed a case against Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd. in the Delhi High Court over the use of ‘6e’ in the name of its SUV, saying that the ‘6E’ mark is an integral part of its identity for the past 18 years and a registered trademark that holds “strong global recognition.”
Mahindra decided to contest the claim but renamed the car to BE 6 in the meanwhile.
On Friday, M&M shares fell 1.26% to Rs 2,940.75 apiece on the BSE even as the benchmark Sensex ended the day 0.26% lower at 75,939.21 points.
