Mahindra today unveiled its manufacturing and battery assembly facility at its Chakan plant in Pune, which will be dedicated to developing electric SUVs. Mahindra has allocated ₹4,500 crore for the facility, located within the company’s Chakan manufacturing hub, one of India’s largest greenfield projects.

The funds allocated for the new facility are part of ₹16,000 crore expenditure planned by Mahindra in the F22–F27 investment cycle, which includes powertrain development, two product top hats including software & tech and manufacturing capacity.

Mahindra’s EV manufacturing hub is an automated manufacturing ecosystem that leverages over 1,000 robots and multiple automated transfer systems. The EV plant will have have a footprint of around 88,000 m² for the EV domain. It utilises a automated press shop, an AI-driven body shop and has robotic paint shops to optimise efficiency.

The facility deploys over 500 robots and automated transfer systems in the body shop, monitored via an IoT-based “nerve centre” for real-time process insights and end to end traceability. It also adopts industry 4.0 tech, AMRs (autonomous mobile robot), and AGVs for material movement, underscoring Mahindra’s commitment to safety, speed, and reliability in manufacturing.

The battery assembly at the plant will have compact battery manufacturing lines, employing patented processes and lean module assembly. The plant integrates manufacturing processes developed and implemented indigenously to develop batteries using industry 4.0 tech.

It employs a patented pallet design for insulation and geometric accuracy, plus hidden cell terminal welding for connectivity and performance. It performs multi-layered end-of-line testing simulating real-world conditions, backed by IP67 ingress protection, real-time temperature monitoring, and automated anomaly isolation. It implements a no-fault-forward strategy coupled with proprietary switching technology, that underscore product quality and reliability.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has announced a price increase of up to 3% for its sport-utility vehicles (SUV) and commercial vehicles (CV), effective this month, January 2025. This adjustment is in response to rising costs due to inflation and increased commodity prices.

Passenger vehicle retails in India grew 5.18% year-on-year to 40.73 lakh units for the calendar year 2024, according to the latest Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations of India (FADA). This is the first time when retail car sales have crossed the 4 million mark. In 2023, passenger vehicle retails stood at 38.73 lakh units.

Two-wheeler retail sales jumped 10.78% year-on-year to 1.89 crore units on the back of improved supply, fresh models and strong rural demand, says the auto dealers' lobby. Two-wheeler volumes, however, remain lower than pre-pandemic highs of 2.1 crore units. According to industry executives, passenger vehicle wholesales, shipments from the factory to dealerships, are expected to be around 4.3 million units in 2024.