'Twenty to 30 per cent of Mahindra SUVs will be electric by 2027'

We talked to Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Mahindra and Mahindra Limited, during our visit to the company's design centre and Formula E facility in England. Excerpts from the interview

- Aspi Bhathena, Jim Gorde

Congratulations on revealing five stunning new models. Could you tell us more about the partnership with the Volkswagen Group?

> We have entered into an agreement with VW Group, allowing us to take rapid strides in the Born EV space. The partnership focuses on the use of MEB electric components on Mahindra's new "Born Electric" platform: INGLO. The cutting-edge INGLO platform gives us a global stage upfront and we are confident to replicate our recent success stories in the EV space also. The shared objective of the two companies is to electrify the automotive market in India, which is one of the key growth markets and an important element in the global decarbonisation of the mobility sector.

With this Volkswagen alliance we are integrating the entire backend of the supply chain. In the EV game, it is going to be crucial to manage the supply chain and a partner like VW is investing deep down in this phase. We have signed a term sheet agreement for electric motors, battery system components, and battery cells. We have locked in a technology ahead of what is in the market. Everything we are doing with VW is something they don't have today. They are going to be production- ready for it to match e-SUVs' launch timelines. The component specifications which we are planning to source are way ahead of what other Indian competitors or players in the Indian market are thinking.

We are planning to sign a supply agreement with VW later this year. We will be using common components and it gives VW the advantage of the scale of both: to drive localization and bring costs down either for the Indian market or the global one.

What sort of depth does this move mean for production? What percentage of the vehicle can be considered as VW MEB?