Mahindra has taken the wraps off its new electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing facility, which is situated within the brand’s 2.83 square kilometre Chakan manufacturing hub. For this 88,000-square-metre EV-only factory, the Indian SUV specialist has allocated Rs 4,500 crore of the total Rs 16,000 crore investment planned in the FY22-FY27 investment cycle.
- New Mahindra EV facility will produce BE 6, XEV 9e and other born EVs
- Body shop deploys over 500 robots; real-time monitoring from “Nerve Center”
- This plant is said to have one of the world’s most compact battery manufacturing lines
The facility, which will produce the BE 6 and XEV 9e SUVs, along with other upcoming born EVs like the XEV 7e, is a fully integrated, highly automated manufacturing ecosystem that uses over 1,000 robots and multiple automated transfer systems, says Mahindra.
Included in the plant is a fully automated press shop, an AI-driven body shop that is said to use over 500 robots and robotic paint shops. The plant also has what Mahindra calls an Internet of Things (IoT)-based “Nerve Center”, which monitors the facility in real-time to pick out insights and have end-to-end traceability. The company also aims for women to comprise 25 percent of the plant’s workforce.
The battery assembly section is fully automated and is said to be one of the world’s most compact battery manufacturing lines, employing patented processes and lean module assembly, which are meant to simplify the manufacturing flow and eliminate or reduce anything that slows down the production process. Along with the production, storage and transfer of batteries, this section is also claimed to perform multi-layered end-of-line testing that simulates real-world conditions.
Hormazd Sorabjee
Sahil Kukreja
