Mahindra & Mahindra has appointed Dr Uli Stuhec as the vice-president and head of Global Born Electric Platform. Mahindra had recently consolidated its e-mobility business in two focused verticals: Last Mile Mobility (LMM) and Electric Vehicle Tech Centre. The company had also announced the ambitious Born Electric Vehicle (BEV), which is said to be an important strategy for the company to attain leadership by creating world-class e-SUVs.

• Stuhec to report to Pankaj Sonalkar, chief of Electric Vehicle Technology Centre

• Will be responsible for planning and executing BEV product development strategy

Dr Stuhec will be part of the Electric Vehicle Tech Centre, at Mahindra North American Technical Centre, Detroit, which will drive the vision of ‘higher electrification and creating electric vehicle products and technology’. Dr Stuhec will be responsible for planning and executing the BEV product development strategy in line with customer requirements. He will the lead BEV vehicle programme – BEV architecture and development of BEV platform strategy – in collaboration with MRV Chennai.

Dr Stuhec will report to Pankaj Sonalkar, chief of Electric Vehicle Technology Centre. Samir Rawte, the current chief platform head of EV in India will report to both Dr Stuhec and Senthur Pandian, chief platform and delivery head for all PV platforms.

The progress of the BEV project will be reviewed by a steering committee, which will include Rajesh Jejurikar, executive director, auto and farm sectors at Mahindra Group; Pankaj Sonalkar, Veejay Nakra, CEO – automotive, Mahindra, and R Velusamy, chief of global product development, Automotive Division.

Prior to joining Mahindra, Dr Stuhec was the VP of vehicle engineering at May Mobility, a Michigan-based autonomous vehicle start-up. He led the launch of the autonomous shuttles in Texas and Japan. He has also worked with Streetscooter – part of the Deustche Post DHL Group, which is one of the world’s largest electric delivery truck manufacturer. Dr Stuhec also had an extensive stint of 17-years in various roles with Ford Motor Co.

New Mahindra’s for India

Mahindra has a number of products lined up for a launch in India, including its much talked about W601 SUV or XUV700, as it has now been christened. Also on the cards for the Indian market is the all-new Scorpio and the new Bolero Neo. Moving to the carmaker’s electric vehicle line-up, the automaker is expected to roll out the eKUV100 EV in the coming months with the all-electric eXUV300, preview at the Auto Expo 2020 as a concept, expected to follow.