Mahindra considering answer to Tesla, final decision awaited

In two months’ time, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd will decide on whether to roll out a car that could turn out to be the Indian company’s answer to Tesla in the luxury electric car space. The company will take a final decision two months from now before making a formal announcement, its managing MD Pawan Goenka said.

“(We are) working on it… the last time that we talked about it, we had said we will be doing feasibility... a lot of work has happened and I think within… I would like to say two months, we should be able to make a final decision and then announce,” Goenka said.

In pursuit of a luxury brand, Mahindra decided to develop and sell products from Pininfarina, a Turin-based design and engineering company that it acquired in December 2015 for around $185 million. Pininfarina will develop an electric sports car and sell it under its own badge, Mint reported in March 2017

“...the product is clearly not a mass market product. What we are looking at is a high-end product for personal use and it is not a commercial use product,” Goenka added.

Goenka’s intent to have a luxury electric car in the Mahindra stable is vindicated by a clutch of new generation companies introducing products to compete with Tesla globally. “I think in China, NIO launched one product just last month, which is supposed to be better than Tesla at a lower price. There is Faraday Future that’s working on it. There is Lucid that is working on it. NIO is working on it for the US. There are many... So in 3-4 years from now you will see a lot of products in the $80,000-100,000 range,” Goenka added.

Tesla’s cars start at $101,000 in the US. In the past, Mahindra has bid for Aston Martin, Volvo and Jaguar Land Rover.

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