No plans yet to enter electric two-wheeler business in India: Mahindra & Mahindra

Automaker Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) on Thursday said that the company has no plans to be in the electric two-wheeler space in India. The Mumbai-based company saw a 57 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 2,484.24 crore in the third quarter from Rs 1,268 crore reported a year ago.

 

“We’ve got a very strong play in electric three-wheelers today. On four-wheelers as well we feel confident of taking market leadership as we go forward especially given the strengths we have in our core products in SUVs. And the electric strengths we have across multiple sectors of technology around the world,” Anish Shah, Managing Director & CEO, M&M said.

 

On two-wheelers however, Shah, said, “We’ve been in that space in India in mass market and we’re still looking at it carefully whether it makes sense for us to get back there or not. Both Peugeot  and BSA Electric, those are speciality niche products and will do well as EVs in markets like Europe, China, South-east Asia. But at this point we have no plans to be in EVs for two-wheelers in India. If the market develops in a way where we see it attractive, only then we’ll allocate capital there.”

 

According to the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), total EV sales in India are expected to be around 1 million units by the end of this year, surpassing the number collectively sold by the industry in the last 15 years, mainly riding on the good traction witnessed by electric two-wheelers (E2Ws). In 2021, the sales of E2Ws in the country jumped over two-fold at 233,971 units, driven by a good traction of high-speed scooters as compared to 100,736 units in 2020.

 

M&M will launch fully electric version of the XUV300 SUV in India in the second half of 2023. The company is currently not looking at allocating capital in two-wheelers and plans to focus on its three-and four-wheeler business for EVs. However, the group did announce a five-year strategic partnership with Hero Electric last month. 

They launched their first electric two-wheeler, the Optima on Wednesday. With this Rs 150-crore partnership, Hero Electric aims to produce one million electric vehicles per annum by the end of this year. Mahindra Group will manufacture Hero Electric's Optima and NYX scooters at the manufacturer's Pithampur facility. 

“With this partnership, we look to further enhance our manufacturing capabilities to meet demand and utilise Mahindra Group’s robust supply chain to reach newer centres in the country,” Naveen Munjal, Managing Director, Hero Electric said. Under the joint venture, both the companies will also work towards electrification of Mahindra-owned Peugeot Motocycles’ portfolio.

 

The company said its auto business continued to register a strong booking pipeline for its key models. 

“Demand for the entire automotive product portfolio remains strong. The order book for XUV 700 and that reflects the customer and market success of these launches. With better availability of semiconductors, we hope to build the volume growth momentum in Q4F22 in our journey to being No 1 in core SUVs,” Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, M&M said.

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