Ahead of its much-awaited Born Electric SUV range rollout, Mahindra & Mahindra – the country’s leading SUV maker- has defined a new organizational structure as part of its go-to-market strategy in Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd or MEAL.
The company has appointed Reeti Nageshri as the head of Business Operations and Strategy and Shruti Agarwal as the head of Product Planning and ESG of its EV division for Mahindra Electric Automobiles Ltd.
The internal communication stated that Reeti has been instrumental in crafting MEAL’s product and marketing strategy since its inception. In her new role, she will be directly accountable for sales, service delivery, and marketing and will interface with the Strategic Sourcing Unit and Manufacturing operations.
Reeti will have a dual reporting to Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director and CEO (Auto and Farm Sector) for Business strategy and to Veejay Nakra, President, Automotive Division.
To maximize synergy in the sales team across the Auto and electric vehicle divisions, M&M appointed Deepak Sinha, the new national head of sales and service delivery for MEAL, who will report to Reeti and Baneswar Banerjee, the vice president and Head of Auto Sales. The brand head of MEAL, Salil Pawar, will continue to report to Reeti.
Baneswar will continue to report to Nalanikanth Golaguntta to enable the MEAL sales and service delivery responsibility through the auto channel.
Shruti Agarwal has been appointed head of product planning and ESG _ MEAL, reporting to Veejay Nakra and Jogindra Shetti for the PP role.
Shruti will lead end-to-end product planning, including product strategy. Shruti joined Mahindra Group in 2019 as an executive assistant to the Chairman, Anand Mahindra, before moving to Mahindra Finance as GM and head of customer, digital, and finance business.
Shruti has led the insight and business analytics functions for Mahindra Auto since December 2023.
Level 2 of MEAL
The business operations team reporting to Reeti Nageshri includes Deepak Sinha, National Head of Sales and Service Delivery; Raaj Srivastav, DGM—Performance Transformation; and Shashi Dandekar, DGM—Business Planning.
Amid the announcement of this new structure, the COO of MEAL, Kausalya Nandakumar, who was steering the sales and service role, has decided to step down from her current position. She spent over two decades at Mahindra & Mahindra before resigning from her existing post.
Despite Nandakumar’s departure, the EV division’s top management still has a notable number of Women CXOs—a conscious move by M&M towards workforce diversity, especially in leadership positions.
An internal circular accessed by Autocar Professional stated that M&M is moving from the concept and product/manufacturing readiness phase to the “Go-to-Market” phase.
“Functions in M&M Ltd., at the AFS level, like Design and SSU (strategic sourcing unit), as well as within the Automotive Division such as Product Development and Technology, Manufacturing, and Quality, will continue to own their respective domains to ensure we stay ahead in providing electrifying experiences to our customers. To prepare for the go-to-market for MEAL, we are happy to announce the new organization in MEAL, which will report to Veejay Nakra.”
The note issued to the employees added that M&M’s journey towards creating an exciting portfolio of electric-origin SUVs is a significant milestone for the company and a pivotal moment in shaping the Indian automotive industry.
The Indian EV market so far comprised a limited model line-up, primarily from Tata Motors and M G Motor. M&M intends to launch nearly half a dozen electric vehicles in the next 3-4 years, expanding prospective buyers’ choices.
M&M’s closest rivals, Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor India, will also introduce their first major EV offerings in the market in the next couple of quarters.
Rajesh Jejurikar, ED and CEO of the Automotive and Farm Equipment Sector at Mahindra & Mahindra, recently stated that he is more optimistic about EVs than before.
M&M claims that the new portfolio of Electric Origin SUVs, based on the newly created INGLO architecture, reflects the company’s intention of showcasing innovation, design, and technology in a way that will ‘wow customers’ and help create a new category.
On November 26, the company will reveal two vehicles at an event in Chennai called ‘Unlimit India.’
Over two years ago, M&M created a new entity called Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd. It has already brought significant investors to British International Investment or BII and Temasek on board.
The company revealed five concepts on August 15, 2022, and it will roll out the first batch of vehicles in the next few months.
A management council consisting of R Velusamy, JT MD MEAL, and President of Automotive Technology and Product Development, Veejay Nakra Jt. MD of MEAL and President of Automotive Division), Vinod Sahay, Rajeev Goyal, and Pratap Bose took on the challenge of creating global products in record time.
An email sent to Mahindra & Mahindra has yet to elicit response.