Mahindra Electric opens ₹100-crore manufacturing hub in Bengaluru

Mahindra Electric Mobility, a part of the $20.7 billion Mahindra group, on Thursday opened its first electric technology manufacturing hub in Bengaluru, highlighting the company’s focus on electric vehicles and technologies associated with them.

According to the company, the new plant, which has been set up with an investment of ₹100 crore, will increase its manufacturing capacity to 25,000 units per annum. It will also create additional direct employment for 200 people.

Branded under the umbrella of +ME technologies, the facility will manufacture battery packs, power electronics and motor assembly which are integral part of an electric power train, in a statement.

“As the pioneers of electric mobility in India, Mahindra is poised to be at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution, while spearheading the endeavour through its range of clean mobility solutions. The manufacturing hub inaugurated today is the next step by Mahindra in the electric technology space to increase local value addition and bring affordable EV technology to redefine mobility in India,” said Pawan Goenka, managing director, Mahindra and Mahindra and chairman, Mahindra Electric, in a statement.

Mahindra is the pioneer of EV technology in India, and is gearing up to realise its all-electric future vision with its new, futuristic EV products, concepts, and solutions. As a part of this vision, the company also rolled out its first lithium ion electric three-wheelers range Treo and Treo Yaari. With the use of exceptional light weighting technologies and composite body panels, the Treo boasts of a range of 170 km per charge. Typically, electric three-wheelers in India have a range of 40-50 km per charge.

“At Mahindra Electric, our aim is to bring about a monumental change in the way India moves by enabling more EV products on the road through our +ME technology solutions. Reiterating our strong faith in EVs we have now invested in technologies that are core to EVs and have set up manufacturing of battery packs, motors, power electronics etc. in our new facility at Bengaluru,” said Mahesh Babu, chief executive Mahindra Electric.

In the meantime, Mahindra is also planning to launch its electric KUV1OO by mid-2019. It will also launch the electric variant of its upcoming sub-four-metre SUV (which has been code named S201 for now), in the first half of the calendar year 2020.