Mahindra & Mahindra to set up new SUV plant to ramp up volumes

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) is looking to set up a new greenfield manufacturing plant by 2027-28 as the homegrown automaker looks to ramp up its capacity to cater to rising demand for SUVs.

“We haven’t decided on the state. It will be a large futuristic plant that we will set up. We are thinking of this as primarily a PV (passenger vehicle) plant but we would keep provision for some other elements of our business to come in as we start conceptualising it and see what kind of investment subsidies we get in different states,” said Rajesh Jejurikar Executive Director and CEO Auto & Farm Sector, M&M.

India’s passenger vehicle industry has forecast 1-2% volume growth for the financial year 2025-26. But M&M has been an outlier. The Mumbai-based company is eyeing mid- to high-teens growth in FY26. “We continue to be positive given our product portfolio,” said Jejurikar.

M&M emerged as India's second-largest carmaker in April 2025. Its market share rose to 13.83% last month from 11.23% in April 2024. Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor India's market share slipped to 12.47% in April 2025, making it the fourth-largest carmaker behind Tata Motors.

M&M is also the leading carmaker in terms of SUV revenue market share. “We have defined our metric as revenue market share. We are not necessarily forcing ourselves to play in a segment where we may not have the right to win. Our average selling price (ASP) is higher than other players, which makes us revenue number 1 in SUVs,” Jejurikar added.

Several carmakers in India have witnessed stress in urban markets but that has not affected M&M so far. “There is stress in urban areas, while rural (demand) is very strong. However, given the demand we have in our products, we are seeing growth momentum. There is strong momentum in e-SUVs. We have delivered 6300 SUVs in 40 days. From our product standpoint, we are fine,” said Jejurikar.

“We have not seen any slowdown in urban even though urban economy at this moment is much tighter. There are many enabling factors in the rural economy,” he added.

M&M’s recently launched EVs have already got a waiting period of at least four months. “We have a waiting period of 4-5 months based on the old bookings that are there and the new bookings that are coming in. The time needed for customer delivery for EVs is significantly different than what happens in ICE. There is also work in enabling charging infrastructure. All of this needs to be coordinated well. This process is very important to customers,” said Jejurikar.

Jejurikar said M&M is going to be calibrated in the way it ramps up EV volumes. “Even though we have capacity we are not operationalising all of that,” he said.

Mahindra & Mahindra currently has a capacity to make 7,500 EVs per month. By the end of the ongoing fiscal, this will increase to 12,000 per month, taking the automaker’s total SUV capacity – ICE and EV – to 69,000 per month. M&M currently utilises 90% capacity.

M&M sold 551,000 SUVs in FY25, up 20% year-on-year, taking its revenue market share in FY25 to 22.5%.

M&M plans to launch 5 more EVs and 7 ICE SUVs by 2030.

On the profitability of EVs, Mahindra Group Managing Director and CEO Anish Shah said it will take a few quarters, possibly a year and a half to get to EBIT margin positive on the EV side but that’s part of the investment that is made. "It’s only when we get to scale in EVs, we will start seeing greater margins on that front," said Shah.

M&M expects Mahindra Electric Automobile Limited (MEAL) to drag overall auto margins of the company by 1-1.5% because of high depreciation cost on the portfolio.