Having garnered prestigious accolades such as the ‘Top Chief Design Officer’ award at the World Industrial Design Conference in China in 2018, the Automotive Designer of the Decade award from Top Gear magazine and the Pride of NID award from the President of India in 2025, Pratap Bose brings a wealth of international experience from companies like Piaggio, Daimler Chrysler, and Tata Motors to his current role as chief design and creative officer at Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M).
In a conversation with Forbes India, he speaks about how the “heartcore” design philosophy is being integrated into the most strategic and tactical business decisions at the company, extending beyond mere product aesthetics. Edited excerpts:
Q How is design integrated into M&M’s business, and what is its overall impact?
At Mahindra, design reports directly to the executive director and CEO of the automotive and farm business, meaning it is integral and integrated into most, if not all, strategic and tactical business decisions. Design at Mahindra extends far beyond mere product aesthetics, and influences other areas like marketing, communications, customer experience, and every touch point of brand expression. This includes how our products are photographed and filmed, and even how our showrooms are designed. For instance, our new showrooms feature massive, suspended LED screens right above the cars, to express elements like the biggest fixed roof glass in both our cars, BE6 and XEV 9e. So, as you open the top, you can look at the sky/the season, whatever… design is also an integral part of our new product strategy and future product plans.
Q What’s the ‘heartcore’ design philosophy, especially concerning the differentiation between ICE and EV (electric vehicles) designs?
At Mahindra, we follow what we call the ‘heartcore’ design philosophy. We believe that people buy our vehicles primarily for an emotional connection, not necessarily for a rational reason. This is why we focus on an ‘experiential range of brands’ rather than just A-to-B commuters. As a result, we don’t have a single Mahindra design language; instead, we have five distinct languages, and with the addition of BE 6, we have five sub-brands. The overarching ‘heartcore’ design means hardcore SUVs, designed from the heart to appeal to the heart.
Each brand has its own design language because each caters to a specific customer base. So, you will see that a customer who is willing to wait 18 to 24 months for a Thar will not necessarily buy a Scorpio or an XUV, even if they are at similar price points with similar features. Which is why we see very little cannibalisation between our brands. Therefore, for our customers, the distinction is less about whether it’s an EV or an ICE vehicle, and more about: ‘Is it a Thar, a Scorpio, or an XUV?’.
When expanding our market volume and sales, we target existing customers, those coming from other brands, and new car buyers. To attract the second and third pools, particularly those who haven’t considered Mahindra before, we created the BE sub-brand, which has its own design language and its electric origin to begin with. Many of our EV customers, in both XEV and BE, have come from other premium global OEMs, finding our products premium enough to add to their garages. So, for us, the question of design language isn’t, ‘Is it EV or ICE?’, it is “What is the brand’?
Q Talking of EVs specifically, how do you balance aesthetics, aerodynamics, and sustainability in their design? And what are the key considerations when it comes to range and battery size?
We view aerodynamics and other technical requirements as a part of the vehicle’s aesthetic expression, not separate entities. Cars have always been shaped by creativity, imagination, technical requirements, and, of course, the wind. As long as these elements are balanced and not in conflict, we can achieve desirable solutions.
For our EVs, due to range being a critical factor, aerodynamics plays an important role. This has led to a coupe-like silhouette on both our BE 6 and XEV models. In the BE 6, features like a floating front bonnet area and air curtains are incorporated to lower drag coefficient.
However, we would never fundamentally alter what a Thar looks like in people’s minds for the sake of aerodynamics.
In EVs, the fact that the engine is absent in the front and there is no intrusion of the powertrain into the cabin frees up significant space, making the cabin much roomier than a corresponding ICE vehicle. The range determines battery size, which, in turn, drives the wheelbase (the space between the two wheels). The wheelbase drives the car’s overall proportion. The battery, like our 79 kWh pack (translating to a real-world 500 km range), is placed on the vehicle’s floor, with a motor typically driving the rear wheel. The longer the range required, the larger the battery.
Q From conceptualisation to execution, the design process of the BE 6 and XEV 9e took about two and a half years. Could you detail the different aspects your design team oversees?
Our design team oversees everything a customer will touch, feel, smell, hear, or interact with daily. This includes the frunk (front storage compartment replacing the engine compartment in electric or hybrid vehicle), colours, textures, fabrics, the shape of the car itself, and crucial aspects like the User Interface/User Experience (UI/UX) with the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) that allows drivers and passengers to interact with the vehicle’s systems such as the infotainment system, instrument cluster and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
A significant area for EVs is sound design. For instance, without engine noise, a visually-challenged person might not perceive an approaching EV, necessitating signals. We collaborated with music composer and producer AR Rahman to design our sounds, including warnings, chimes, and sounds for pleasure, with the 16-speaker system tuned by him with Harman Kardon.
Beyond these sensory aspects, design is also involved in integrating technologies like multiple screens, airbags, 16 speakers, and ADAS with their cameras and sensors. So, there are aspects that the customer will not see, but we have to integrate into the design and there are some overtly visual, audio or tactile features that are more natural for designers to get involved with.
Q Given the fact that EVs are silent, are there specific challenges in managing interior noises like Buzz, Squeaks, and Rattles (BSR)?
Yes, this is a significant challenge. BSR refers to the ‘buzz’, ‘squeak’, and ‘rattle’ sounds that can occur in a car beyond engine noise. In EVs, because the cabin is so silent inside—especially with features like double-laminated glass that insulates from any sound outside—any internal BSR is exaggerated. It doesn’t get drowned out by engine noise as it would in an ICE vehicle, which has some noise from the engine. Therefore, BSR management is far more critical in EVs. This means managing situations where two parts might rub against each other and create sound. It was a substantial engineering challenge, and they’ve done a brilliant job.
Q How do you approach sustainability in product design?
Sustainability is built into our products in several ways. We offer a 10-year guarantee on our batteries, and that they can be repurposed for domestic or static applications, with a whole recycling industry emerging. On the material front, the fabric used for upholstery is made from 50 percent recycled PET bottles—a technology we brought to India and collaborated with suppliers to implement. My ambition is to increase this percentage. There’s lots of plastics on the interior, which we don’t paint or coat which makes it easy to shred and recycle.
The important point is that customers are generally not willing to pay extra for a greener product. So, we must find ways to integrate sustainability for the right reasons, often without passing on the cost. At Mahindra, this is a core group value, with many plants running on 100 percent recycled energy and water. We deliberately chose to use recycled PET fabric, even though it wouldn’t have visibly differentiated the product, because it aligns with our conscious efforts towards sustainability.
Q What do you consider the most important design aspect? What makes M&M competitive in the global market, particularly with EVs?
I call it the Heartcore design philosophy. I believe the most important design aspect, especially for Mahindra cars, is that it must generate an emotional response. In today’s digital age, the first impression often happens on a 5-inch screen. You have mere seconds to capture attention among hundreds of other items in a feed. This initial visual impression is directly linked to interest in a product. People won’t visit a showroom if they aren’t visually attracted or if the product doesn’t promise something compelling. While the actual experience must live up to that initial promise, the visual sense is highly dependent on design to sell our products and services. If the design doesn’t hook you in, your showrooms will be empty.
In terms of competition, it is truly global today. We recognised the need for a significant leap in EVs in India. Although we might have been late to the EV game, the products we introduced, based on our electric-origin INGLO architecture, are truly game-changing. We are confident they are as good as anything produced globally, especially considering the price point at which we offer them. This confidence is why we are exploring taking these products overseas.
(This story appears in the Aug 22, 2025 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, Click here.)