Mahindra, Ola Electric gear up to take on Tata Motors in India’s EV space

On the 75th year of India’s Independence, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Ola Electric are gearing up to take on market leader Tata Motors in India’s electric vehicle (EV) space.

While Mahindra has unveiled that it would be launching five SUVs from 2024-end up to 2027, Ola said the company’s electric four-wheeler will be rolled out in 2024 and its acceleration and range would be its USPs.

 

M&M’s e-SUVs to come under two brands

Mahindra’s e-SUVs will come under two new brands — the XUV and the all-new electric-only brand called Born Electric (BE).

Mahindra e-SuVs would come under XUV and 
Born Electric brands -- Source: Mahindra.

The XUV brand would see cars roll out from the current internal combustion engine (ICE) stable, as EVs, implying that these e-cars would be converts of their petrol or diesel variants like the XUV300.

Meanwhile, the BE brand would be electric SUVs that are new, meaning vehicles, which did not exist in the Mahindra stable.

The brands would see the roll out of five e-SUVs — XUV.e8, XUV.e9, BE.05, BE.07 and BE.09. These upcoming models will be based on Mahindra’s three pillars of brand, design and technology.

M&M also unveiled its new electric vehicle platform INGLO. It was seen at the company’s newly-established Mahindra Advanced Design Europe (MADE) at Oxfordshire in the UK.

The INGLO platform uses Volkswagen’s (VW’s) MEB platform components and offers progressive battery technology, platform architecture, brain power as well as human-machine interface.

Sales of e-passenger vehicles in India have risen over five-fold in the last one year to around 10,000 units in the second quarter of 2022 from over 2,250 e-cars in the same period a year ago.

So, considering the growth rate, Mahindra and Ola Electric would have huge opportunities to take on the Tatas in India’s EV market.

 

Ola Electric four-wheeler to have 500 km range

Ola Electric’s car will hit the road around mid or later part of 2024 and will have a range of a whopping 500 km, which would be one of the highest in India.

Ola Electric had teased its concept car earlier.

Ola said that it will also bring in an S1 scooter as well as a new battery, which hopefully would help avoid a rerun of the battery fire incidents.

Ola chief executive officer (CEO) as well as co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal promised an EV revolution in India during the unveiling event.

Aggarwal has lined up ambitious plans, saying that the Ola Future factory would be able to produce one million EVs in the next three years or so.

Ola Electric was generally mum about the car’s details. The only information that was out was that the car will go from 0 to 100 km in just four seconds (which is highly commendable, if true) and would come with a range of 500 km on a single charge.

Aggarwal said Ola Electric’s car will have a futuristic look and the size is expected to be similar to a small hatchback. Hopefully, Ola Electric would get into the volume game with some smart pricing.

Since the car will be out in 2024, it means it is still in the development stage.

Ola already has EV scooters in India’s market, but they were mired in controversy over fire incidents in the last few months.

Conclusion

As Mahindra and Ola Electric gear up to take on Tata Motors in India’s EV market, pricing, performance and range would be key factors in determining where the duo would stand in the EV space compared to the Tatas.