Mahindra to develop autonomous electric vehicle range

Indian technology and automotive giant Mahindra is utilising expertise from its wide portfolio of companies to produce a range of autonomous electric cars. The multinational company is heavily invested in six automotive brands, four IT brands, and many other companies that specialise in production and technology. It also fields a team in Formula E.

Speaking to sister magazine Autocar UK ahead of last weekend’s championship finale in London, Mahindra CEO Anand Mahindra said that sharing the expertise of each of the company’s brands will be key for it create products for intelligent mobility, including a line-up of autonomous electric vehicles.

The Mahindra boss described the merits of each brand, emphasising that their vast differences was a strength, rather than weakness. “If you look at the future of mobility, having one of the largest IT companies in India (Tech Mahindra) as part of your group, it’s not a bad thing to have,” he said. “They’re already doing an enormous amount of work with other companies – which we cannot name – on autonomous vehicles. A lot of their technology will go into our cars and our EVs.

The CEO said the company's EVs would be badged as Mahindras. Currently the only Mahindra badged car on sale in the UK is the all-electric e2o, but more models are due.

“If you look at us as a group, as the world converges, as technology converges, we’re finding that the number of things that we do – whether it’s rural finance in India, information technology around the world or solar energy – we’re finding that the opportunities for doing business are coming at the interface of these companies.”

Though the Mahindra boss wouldn’t expand further on exactly what autonomous vehicles his brand would be making with its knowledge base, or give any indication as to when we can expect them, the company’s executive director, Pawan Goenka, did confirm that the technology would trickle into Mahindra’s other brands, including Ssangyong and Pininfarina.

Earlier this year, Autocar UK revealed that Mahindra wanted Pininfarina to develop an electric supercar. Goenka also said that Formula E was a catalyst to speed-up the development of electric motor and battery technology for future models. Mahindra revealed that aside from the marketing benefits, technology was the main reason the company entered the championship.