The President of Mahindra’s Automotive Business, Veejay Ram Nakra, has made a strong statement. He just said that CNG is not in Mahindra’s DNA, and that the SUV giant will not offer CNG powered vehicles in the passenger car (M1) segment. This statement from the automotive industry veteran came during an interview with BusinessToday, on the sidelines of the Mahindra BE 6e and XEV 9e electric SUV drive event that happened at Chennai last week.
Why’s Mahindra so gung-ho about not doing CNG?
Firstly, it’s the optics of it.
CNG, is seen a the fuel of economy cars and taxi fleets. Mahindra wants to steer clear from the economy segments dominated mainly by Maruti Suzuki, and to certain extents by Hyundai and Tata, and reinforce its presence in the Indian car market as a lifestyle brand. While Maruti Suzuki was forced to do CNG after it had to stop producing its solitary diesel engine, Mahindra seems to have no such problems. In fact, it’s been doubling down on diesels.
Mahindra symbolizes a macho attitude, street presence and a ‘we live young, we live free‘ ethos, and the brand wants to do nothing that will upset this image. The automaker plans to go full throttle on powerful engines for its SUVs. Mahindra offers turbocharged petrol and diesel engines that are segment leaders.
Mahindra means power!
Take for instance, the entry-level SUV from Mahindra – the XUV 3XO. The sub-4 meter offering has the most powerful turbo petrol engine in its segment, making nearly 130 Bhp-230 Nm. Even the diesel powered XUV 3XO leads the segment with 115 Bhp-300 Nm outputs.
So, right from get go, Mahindra wants to appeal to the performance side of things, telling customers that it stands for fun, performance and youthfulness – attributes that stand exactly opposite to CNG – a fuel that symbolizes frugality, cleaner emissions and just adequate performance.
Even bigger Mahindra SUVs such as the Scorpio-N and XUV700 have powerful tunes on the turbo petrol and turbo diesel motors. In fact, both SUVs make in excess of 200 Bhp on their petrol variants – none of their direct competitors make as much. Why, even the mighty Toyota Fortuner’s petrol trim falls short when compared to the output that the Scorpio-N manages.
And CNG isn’t the only way to go green
Mahindra’s Born Electric SUVs are testament to this. Both the BE 6e and XEV 9e make a whopping 280 Bhp-380 Nm, numbers that have stunned the industry and car buyers alike. And these SUVs – by virtue of their battery powered electric powertrains – are a lot cleaner than CNG powered cars can ever hope to be.
Zero tail pipe emissions yet enough power and torque to establish Mahindra clearly as the performance leader in India. How does 0-100 Kph in 6.7 seconds sound, along with running costs as little as 1 rupee per kilometer. A clear case of having your cake, and eating it too!
CAFE norms will be met, comfortably!
Not having a CNG powered car is a distinct disadvantage, especially while meeting Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) norms for mileage and tail pipe emissions. However, having an electric powertrain converts this disadvantage into an advantage as Carbon Dioxide emissions drop to nearly nothing and fuel efficiency goes through the roof.
By installing a yearly production capacity of 90,000 electric cars to produce the BE 6e and XEV 9e, Mahindra has smartly positioned itself as CAFE 3 ready, and as an antidote to its bread and butter diesel SUVs. Remember, every second diesel car sold in India is a Mahindra, and CAFE doesn’t like diesels.
Selling 7,500 electric cars each month in India is massive. In fact, in one shot, Mahindra would have doubled India’s electric car market with the BE 6e and XEV 9e should it manage to actually achieve the 7,500 units/month production target. We wouldn’t be surprised if Mahindra actually manages to do this.
Both the Mahindra BE 6e and the XEV 9e Born Electric SUVs are very keenly priced. While the BE 6e starts from 18.9 lakh, the XEV 9e starts from 20.9 lakh. At these prices, both SUVs offer real world ranges between 400-500 Kms. Clearly, the inflection point for electric cars in India is closer than ever before as range anxiety will be a thing of the past, all thanks to these SUVs.
In such circumstances, CNG becomes irrelevant as a fuel to power large, high performance SUVs. In fact, it makes cars slower, heavier, and if I may add, very boring and uninspiring. There’s hardly a CNG powered car out there that feels genuinely fun to drive.
Now that Mahindra has shown what can be done with electric cars, it’s only natural that the market moves towards electrics and relegates CNG/LPG to the cab segments where cost effectiveness – both in terms of running costs and initial purchase cost – matters.
Mahindra’s clarity praiseworthy
The Indian car industry – especially the budget segment – is full of manufacturers trying to be ‘everything for everyone’. Mahindra stands out from this crowd, as a automaker willing to make bold choices, walk the path less trodden and take those risks worth taking. The automaker seems very clear about its status as a SUV specialist, and every new launch is reinforcing Mahindra’s position as India’s pre-eminent SUV maker.
Then there’s the clarity about what it wants to offer its customers – performance and drive-ability over fuel efficiency. For instance, every Mahindra SUV seems to have a distinct driver’s DNA. Even the automatic gearboxes that Mahindra uses in its SUVs don’t shift up quickly, like most competitors’ cars do in order to maximize fuel efficiency often at the expense of drive-ability.
Instead, what you get on a Mahindra Automatic SUV is a gearbox that’s happy to hold a lower gear for longer to really deliver that grunt the engine is capable of, delighting the driver in the process, and making the drive a lot more exciting, and involving.
So, in this day and age where corporates are largely conformists, Mr. Veejay Ram Nakra’s statements about CNG, and why it doesn’t fit Mahindra’s philosophy come as a breath of fresh air.
