It is no secret that Mahindra and Mahindra are keen on getting into the battery making business in India. According to the Make-in-India norms, a battery pack is considered made here if just the cells are assembled, something Mahindra has been doing for quite some time. As is the case, most of these cells are imported from Taiwan or China, where the procurement cost is quite low. Moreover, these countries produce battery cells in house. In short, India still isn’t manufacturing its own cells and this is one of the factors that contributes to the higher cost of the electric vehicles. However, setting up a cell manufacturing plant in India is a costly affair – Rs 200cr + investments. The current electric vehicle volumes don’t justify the same.
However, in a conversation with Mahesh Babu, CEO of Mahindra Electric, we happened to learn that the company is indeed keen on getting into a joint venture. In as much as he is allowed to say at the moment, Mahesh confirmed that something exciting is coming up and by the next few months, we will hear about it. He says that the Mahindra has the expertise and know-how of assembling the cells here and this will be just an application of the same. Talks are on with several OEMs for the same. Mahesh further says that Mahindra is open to sharing its technology with someone like even Tata Motors and creating synergies. This is for the benefit of everyone involved. Given these statements, it is highly possible that the company might enter into a JV with a local player. Even a JV with another carmaker will be quite a possibility.
At present, in India, the only battery cell manufacturing facility will be set up by Suzuki-Toyota in Gujarat. Given the fact that Maruti Suzuki or Toyota doesn’t have a fully electric vehicle in their current portfolio doesn’t seem to deter the makers. In fact, the upcoming Auto Expo 2020 will be a full house with electric models from MSIL. Mahindra, as well as Tata too, will be showing their all-electric vehicles to the public. Tata is in the lead right now, having the Tigor as well as Nexon EV while Mahindra only has the Verito EV. The latter has already announced its KUV as well as XUV300 electric models.