Companies
We challenge OEMs to invest in India, compete with us: M&M's Anish Shah
Summary
- Mahindra & Mahindra has committed significant investments of ₹10,000 crore in its born-electric SUV program
New Delhi: As talks of an imminent import duty cut on electric vehicles intensifies, Mahindra Group managing director and chief executive Anish Shah on Friday told Mint that it would like to “throw open a challenge" to global carmakers to “invest in India and compete with us", responding to a query on how such a decision would impact domestic original equipment manufacturers’ (OEMs) grounds-up EV plans.
“What we have demonstrated so far is the ability to win and play with the best products in the market place. We’ve beaten all the global majors in India. We are making in India for the world now and we would welcome all global players to invest in India and compete with us. That’s the challenge we would throw to them—if you want to do it, come and invest in India, come compete with us," Shah said.
Mint had reported on 1 November that completely built-up units (CBUs) of vehicles priced below $40,000, which now face an import duty of 70%, may be able to attract lower duties in the range of 15-30% for EVs priced up to $25,000-35,000 under a new national EV policy, with the caveat that OEMs shipping these vehicles to the country begin local manufacturing in the next two to three years and a clause to claw back the duty sop if they fail to do so.
Mahindra & Mahindra has committed significant investments of ₹10,000 crore in its born-electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) programme, with five EVs slated for launch on its ground-up electric platform called Inglo. These EVs will be ready at 2024-end. The auto major has also inked global sourcing agreements for key components for the vehicles and has onboarded marquee investors such as British International Investment (BII) and Temasek for its EV subsidiary. Mahindra, via this EV subsidiary, will make a ₹10,000 crore investment in 7-8 years for setting up the manufacturing facility, development, and production of its upcoming BEVs.
The auto major on Friday reported standalone net profit of ₹3,452 crore in the second quarter of FY24, up 67% from ₹2,068 crore for the same quarter last year. Its standalone revenue from operations in the same quarter jumped 15.7% to ₹24,310 crore from ₹21,010 crore on a year-on-year basis, with SUV revenue alone clocking a 28% year-on-year surge.
The SUV-maker said its open bookings for SUVs currently stood at 286,000 units, reflected sustained demand for its products. M&M also said it has seen a 90 basis points increase in its revenue share in the SUV segment, accounting for over 19% of the segment's revenues over the last five months.
Rajesh Jejurikar, CEO, auto and farm divisions, said that the market for tractors is expected to see a flattish growth over last year, as the month of March is expected to record a dip in sales because of the absence of the Navratri festival in the month of March this year, unlike the last. “We had earlier said we expect a low single digit growth for the farm business for this fiscal. Now we are saying growth will be flat, so there isn't too much of a difference from what we said before," Jejurikar said.
