Mahindra electric SUV trio under consideration for Australia

Mahindra has committed to adding at least two fully electric SUVs to its Australian showrooms in a move that will be commercially necessary if the diesel-powered Lifestyler ute is a sales success.

carsales understands that the midsize Mahindra XEV 9e and seven-seat XEV 9S are under serious consideration for Australia. The XEV 9e has already been spotted testing in Melbourne, while a third EV, the unusually styled BE 6, could be added later.

The strategy is tied directly to Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, or NVES. Carmakers must balance the CO2 output of the vehicles they sell against targets that toughen every year.

Selling EVs improves the result and can generate credits to offset dirtier models. High-CO2 diesel-powered utes like Mahindra’s incoming Lifestyler are among the toughest to offset.

Mahindra international operations chief Sachin Arolkar told carsales that the Indian brand aimed to “balance [NVES] at a portfolio level”.

Already in testing locally, the XEV 9e is firming as the most likely debut EV for Mahindra in Australia. Available in 59kWh/170kW or 79kWh/210kW variants, both with LFP battery chemistry, the 9e would offer up to 533km range (WLTP) with 175kW DC charging.

Those specifications are competitive enough but not exceptional, especially in light of Chinese rivals like the XPeng G6 offering 800-volt charging speeds in the early-$50,000 price range.

It’s likely that Mahindra would need to deploy eye-catching pricing, likely below the $50,000 mark, to stand out in the crowded midsize electric SUV field in Australia, particularly as the brand locally has no existing reputation as an EV manufacturer.

Inside, the 9e has been recently updated with a new dashboard layout based around three 12.3-inch displays with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus an available 16-speaker Harman Kardon stereo and glass roof.

The XEV 9S could be a smart play for Mahindra. Despite being shorter than the 9e, the 9S packages seven seats atop the same INGLO electric architecture as its sibling, with a 79kWh battery, 210kW/380Nm RWD powertrain, and a 20–80 per cent charge time of around 20 minutes.

Keen pricing for the 9S could see Mahindra offering an interesting cut-price alternative to the six-seat Tesla Model Y that kicks off at $74,990 in Australia while also dramatically undercutting larger three-row EVs like the Kia EV9.

Such a product could be fit for purpose for rideshare operators in Australia. Available equipment takes in cooled first- and second-row seating, rear window shades and dual wireless phone chargers.

If there’s a wildcard, it is the Mahindra BE 6. At just 4371mm long, it sits closer in size to familiar models like the BYD Atto 3 and Kia EV3 while using Mahindra’s RWD platform and offering the choice of 59kWh, 70kWh and 79kWh batteries.

Inside, a driver-focused twin-screen setup is used along with an augmented reality HUD.

In India, Mahindra allows buyers to purchase the BE 6 without a battery for as little as $16,700 before leasing the pack at a cost of $0.05/km. In Australia, it’s likelier that the entire vehicle will be bundled together.

With camouflaged XEV 9e units already under evaluation on Australian roads and key Mahindra executives telling carsales that it will need to sell a range of EVs to avoid emissions penalties under NVES laws, it’s only a matter of time until the new models are confirmed.

How competitively priced Mahindra’s EVs need to be will largely turn on how successful the diesel-powered Lifestyler ute is. The more Lifestylers the Indian brand sells, the more EVs it will need to sell to offset the pick-up’s CO2 figure and avoid an NVES penalty.

Given we now know that the Lifestyler won’t nab a hybrid option until later this decade at the earliest, the incoming Mahindra EVs will be doing the heavy lifting for some time.

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