ELECTRIC SHEEP?

Nah, it's time for androids to start dreaming about Indian EVs

- By Kartik Ware

The beginning of the horseless carriage is now an everyday reality. Since horses didn't run on batteries (though I'm sure the equines lasted longer back then... and still do), people in the early 1800s invented four-wheeled contraptions that did. EVs existed long before most present-day countries did, and not just as one-off just-invented experiments, either — electric carriages were used as taxis in the UK and the US before the calendar flipped to '1900'. Wildly different times, obviously, and while I'm not the type to get caught up in accidents of geography or cling to transient notions of nationality, I couldn't help but wonder — how the hell did Mahindra manage to make the XEV 9e into the world-class vehicle it is? Probably because it's electric. Also, because it is made up of parts from all over the world, but we'll get to that later.

Ask any one of the 1.46 billion Indians what a Mahindra is, and the odds are that they'll tell you it’s a rugged four-wheeled chariot with a noisy diesel providing a reassuring soundtrack. And to be honest, that’s exactly what I have a soft spot for myself. In the XEV, instead, the most testosterone-loaded thing was the rather manly voice booming through the speakers, authoritatively informing me that I was driving a very powerful vehicle. At least I don’t need this kind of patronising welcome, and this is also why, possibly, I believe that EVs are mostly bought by champions of malapropisms who confidently spout things like ‘basis that’, ‘ASAP as possible’ and ‘revert back’. It only reflects minds as dim as the view out of the XEV’s rear windshield.