Sense, Sensible, Sci-Fi

BEING NEARLY ₹2 LAKH CHEAPER, VARIANT-FOR-VARIANT, THAN XEV 9e, IT OFFERS MORE PRACTICALITY, LESS POLARISING DESIGN

- ROSHUN POVAIAH

WHAT DO YOU get when you stick a Mahindra XEV 9e and XUV700 together? You get the XEV 9S, a space-efficient SUV that’s futuristic under the skin, but practical enough to set sales charts soaring. Mahindra has done a good job of marrying its electric platform (Inglo), which underpins the XEV 9e, with the body shell of the XUV700. Priced from ₹19.95-29.45 lakh, there’s a variant for everyone.

Sensible design

At first glance, the XEV 9S looks like the XEV 9e, but there are subtle changes. The end-to-end daytime running lamp bar is chunkier. The backlit logo is on the closed-off grille. The wheelbase of the XEV 9S is 2,762 mm, compared to 2,775 mm for the XEV 9e and 2,750 mm for the XUV700. If it weren't for the new taillamps, revised bumper, and XEV 9S badging, it could easily be mistaken for an XUV700.