Can Mahindra do an SUV in EVs?
One year since Mahindra’s love affair with EVs began, the SUV king is betting on speed, design and customer obsession electrifying its brand
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Prefer us on GoogleLast Updated: Mar 24, 2026, 12:32 IST3 min
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In a Nutshell
- Mahindra sold 41,000 EVs in 10 months, claiming 33% market share
- Batman EV SUV sells out in 135s, returns for new run
- Mahindra rolls out 1,000 ultra-fast charging points for EVs
In the slow-moving automotive manufacturing world where a simple part redesign can take months of internal reviews, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) moves at ‘startup speed’. Last year, the automaker spotted some social media chatter about its black BE 6 electric SUV looking like the Batmobile. Mahindra did what few carmakers would. It built the car people were imagining.
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“We looked at it [the chatter online] and said: If it looks like that, why don’t we create that?” said Rajesh Jejurikar, executive director and CEO of auto and farm sectors at M&M, at a media roundtable last November. “It took us 2.5 to 3 months to go from the idea stage to negotiating a deal with Warner Bros to announcing the Batman edition on August 14.” When the limited-edition model went on sale, the 999 units were sold out in 135 seconds.
This wasn’t just a branding win for Jejurikar who joined Mahindra in 2000 as vice president of marketing, but a demonstration of how the company acts with a speed that most carmakers, especially large, legacy manufacturers, struggle to match.
The Group of 5
Mahindra’s love affair with EVs began on February 14 last year when it started taking bookings for the XEV 9e and BE 6 SUVs. Since then it has launched the XEV 9S and other versions of the 9e and BE 6, apart from an electric version of the XUV 3XO. Asked how a company born in the era of tractors and rugged off-roaders is now out-pacing startups in design and development, Jejurikar says the agility comes from its “G5”. That is the internal shorthand for a small, senior group of leadership that runs regular reviews.Every Friday, the Mahindra top brass meets to listen to what the customers are saying, and acts on it. This agility allowed Mahindra to go from the success of the Thar and the Scorpio—they turned the company into India’s second-largest carmaker by the end of 2025—to place its bets on the silent world of EVs.
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Yet, it’s a battle for survival. Despite its recent wins, Mahindra’s heavy reliance on diesel leaves it with little room to manoeuvre, as India moves toward stricter CAFE III (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) norms. “There is no option for them but to adopt EVs,” says an automotive analyst, noting that to stay compliant with emission rules, the company likely needs EVs to make up 12-13 percent of its sales mix. As on February, FADA data shows that number sitting at 5.5 percent.
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Late to the party?
When Mahindra announced its entry into EVs in November 2024, the narrative was that it was late to the EV party. “How can you be late to a party that hasn’t started?” Jejurikar told Forbes India earlier.Rather than simply stuffing batteries into petrol frames, it went “clean sheet”, creating the INGLO platform—a dedicated electric foundation designed to make the EV not just a sensible choice, but an object of desire. “Our strategy for EVs remains the same as that for ICE. We launch products that customers fall in love with first. The fact that they are electric is almost secondary,” said Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO of M&M’s automotive division, in an earlier interview.
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That philosophy shaped everything from the cars’ futuristic styling to their software-heavy interiors. “Mahindra vehicles are known for their rugged design, but they also have styling that strongly resonates with younger and aspirational buyers,” said Puneet Gupta, director at S&P Global Mobility. “That works in Mahindra’s favour because those groups make up the core EV customer today.”
Just over a year since the launch of its ‘electric origin’ SUVs, Mahindra has claimed the No 1 spot in revenue market share for the segment. “In Q3, that [share] was 33 percent,” said Jejurikar while announcing the Q3FY26 results. “We’ve sold over 41,000 EVs in 10 months.” Eighty percent of these buyers are new to Mahindra.
Competition ahead
However, the “stronghold” Mahindra currently enjoys in ₹18-30 lakh price band is about to get crowded. S&P’s Gupta expects competition to intensify as a flood of new brands and products from JSW Group, Toyota, and Maruti Suzuki enter the fray over the next three years.Mahindra’s response has been to build the ecosystem alongside the cars, rolling out 1,000 ultra-fast charging points along high-traffic corridors where it claims a 20-minute “top-up” can unlock a 500-km day trip. At the same time, it is preparing for the next phase of growth.
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Back on the road, the Batman Edition is returning for a second limited run because the fans demanded it, and Mahindra, as always, was listening. It opened bookings for the SUV that’s inspired by Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy on March 10 for one day, with deliveries beginning on April 10.
First Published: Mar 24, 2026, 13:13
Subscribe NowHimani is an Associate Editor at Forbes India where she writes about startups shaking things up, legacy firms seeking fresh grounds, and sectors in the middle of big transformations. Always curious ab
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