Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. has unveiled a new EV and battery assembly facility at its plant near Pune, as part of its electric overdrive.
Occupying a significant chunk of the 2.83-square-km Chakan plant, the EV hub is operated by more than 1,000 robots for highly automated manufacturing. It has an automated press shop, an AI body shop and a robotic paint shop. M&M's first “electric origin” SUVs — the BE 6 and XEV 9e — are being assembled here. The battery unit is fully automated to package blade lithium-ion blade cells sourced from Chinese EV maker BYD Co.
M&M has allocated Rs 4,500 crore out of the total planned capex of Rs 16,000 crore over FY22–27 for the development of the EV facility. It aims to produce 2 lakh electric SUVs from the Chakan plant between 2027 and 2029.
“Yes, the physical facility was built in six months—from the first shed to the rolldown of the first EV,” Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Yes, in India — with pride. Team @Mahindra_Auto @mahindraesuvs I bow low to you all.”
EV Overdrive
M&M aims to sell 5,000 units of its first two “electric origin” SUVs every month, President (Auto) Veejay Nakra had said on Tuesday.
“We want to democratise the technology (EV),” he had said. “We want to take these game changing features (in two cars) to as many customers as possible to begin with.”
M&M is eyeing an initial production capacity of 90,000 units/annum at the Chakan EV hub, which can be readily scaled to 1,20,000 units.
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