Mahindra & Mahindra is in the midst of its most ambitious transformation yet, backed by a ₹27,000 crore investment plan, a new greenfield plant, new vehicle platform, and a sharpened focus on both electrification and global expansion.
In an exclusive conversation, Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO of M&M’s Automotive Division and Executive Director of Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd. discusses how the SUV maker is preparing for the festive season, leveraging digital tools to align production with real demand, and managing the transition from a supply-constrained to a demand-driven market.
He also shares insights on the company’s EV strategy under the INGLO platform, its approach to the NU_IQ architecture, global expansion priorities, and how Mahindra plans to sustain mid-teen growth in a muted industry environment.
Mahindra has announced a ₹27,000 crore investment plan, a greenfield plant, and a strong global push. How do you ensure that M&M keeps pace with the changing market dynamics? There also seems to be a notable gap between Vahan data and wholesale numbers; how do you read the current demand scenario?
I’ll break it up into the first quarter and beyond the first quarter. If you take just the first quarter, first FY quarter, if you see, our Vahan growth was the same or slightly more than our billing growth. Our billing growth was 22%, our Vahan growth was 22.5% or something like that.
So, I want to keep that quarter off, because very clearly, our Vahan growth was keeping pace with that. In fact, in the last 6 months, our Vahan growth was slightly more than our billing growth. In July and August what you have seen is pure stocking.
For us, we are very clear about what we are trying to do. I’ll go back to the first point you made, the sentiment in the market. That’s an important aspect. I don’t think anybody can discount that fact. Our view at this point in time from what we are seeing as signals in the market is that the festive will get some optimism back into the market.
And we don’t want to lose the opportunity. We want to ensure that it goes off the shelf. So, in that sense, there is a little bit of a push from our side to make sure that we are ready for it. But we are calibrating in terms of where we are putting it. Which variants we are putting in and what we are doing. So, one of the things we have done over the last couple of years is a massive digitisation of our entire forecasting and sales pipeline through ConnectSys.
Mahindra posted strong growth in Q1 FY26. What’s your expectation for the festive season, given that the base in H2 is higher?
We stick to the mid to high teens projection. But let me answer the question in two different ways. Last year, the festival season we had very small (Thar) Roxx (volume) in it. This year, we have full-on Roxx (volumes) coming in. We have the fungibility to go all the way to 9,000-9,500 units just on Roxx.
That didn’t exist last year. Thar Roxx continues to have strong traction. Secondly, our BEVs weren’t available last year. That’s new capacity and new demand we have added. So, you can do the math. My average last year was 45,000 billings. To achieve mid-teens (growth), I need to do 6,500 extra units. Provided the rest of it stays where it is.
How is the rest of the portfolio performing?
The Thar and the XUV 3XO petrol capacity has grown. Last year, if you look at it, the government and the institutional business of Boleros were not that great. And, if you do the basic comparison, you start to see that Boleros have come back to the traditional level where they are at. So, that gives me some confidence. Scorpio is doing extremely well.
Scorpio N is going strong and that to me is a 14,000-15,000 units portfolio. The piece which needs a refresh is the XUV 700. So, there could be a little bit of numbers going down, but my Bolero, Scorpio N, Scorpio Classic is helping. The new XUV 700 will come in the fourth quarter. Overall, the base remains solid, and incremental growth will come from new introductions.
Yet, overall market demand seems muted. Do you agree?
For the industry, yes, demand is subdued. But, the way we look at it is that customers get excited when you put products out there which are exciting. It’s a reflection on the OEMs rather than a reflection on the market. So, when we say it’s a muted market, that’s because it’s a muted launch scenario. Where are the exciting products? So, our view is that when the exciting products come, the market will get excited.
Any new launches for the festive season?
During the festival we don’t have much coming in. But we have done some variant tweaks. We saw good traction on XUV 3XO Rev-X. And, we did some tweaks on Scorpio N, which is also helping us quite a bit. So, we are well set in that perspective. We might have a couple of surprises, but those are minimal pieces we will play around with, but not much for the festive. The big launches are lined up post festive season.
You’ve addressed EVs with the INGLO platform. With NU_IQ, are you now looking to cater to the core market where Mahindra doesn’t yet have a strong presence?
In larger vehicle categories, like 4.5-4.6 meters, we are in a bit of a unique place where we actually have three products, and they are in the same price band, but they cater to different segments. We believe the 4.3 meter segment is getting to a point where the customers are actually sophisticated enough.
There’s a distinct segment which won’t overlap. And that’s generally where our products start to play out. Our products have character, but they also turn off some customers. But that’s okay for us because then it helps me carve out a very clear niche. And if I’m able to put two products which carve out separate niches, I capture the market. Rather than putting one large volume product in the space and say that this is the product which will capture everything in that space. That’s the way we’re looking at it.
Last year you clocked 20% growth, and this year you’re guiding for mid-teens. What’s the long-term vision for Mahindra, say by 2030?
It’s hard to predict what the volumes will look like. Our job is to put out products which excite customers and encourage them to buy. This market is different from the market 20-25 years ago when people held a car until they were forced to replace the car. This is a market which replaces when they get excited. So, it’s in that sense demand-driven based on what your portfolio looks like. Our goal is to be the No. 1 SUV player by revenue market share.
Mahindra has spoken about global ambitions for years. But exports are still relatively small. Why?
If you look at the capacity that we are adding that says it all. We won’t put capacity if we don’t have conviction that we’ll be 80%-85% of the business. The way we look at it is we would rather go slow and steady than going too fast and having duds in the market. We are doing it in a calibrated way.
We want to make sure every product lands well and does well. For the last couple of years we have seen good growth in exports. The challenge is people do comparison with the other global OEMs who do sizable exports out of India. Their brand is already built (globally). We have to do the hard work of building the brand and then sell. We want to do it the right way.
So, what are the priority markets? South Africa, Australia we heard. What other markets are on your radar?
The UK is definitely something we are looking closely at from BEVs perspective. We have products which help us there. There are some unique LHD markets like Chile and a few other places. which have an audience which appreciates our products. The Middle East is an area where we are starting to expand. We are also looking for good partners that we can play with sustainably.
So, we will take it as it happens. And even in places where we are present like South Africa and Australia, we still have significant headroom to grow. We have just gone from having one product to now having three products in these markets. We are yet to tap into the full market. XUV 3XO has been a great learning experience for us.
XUV 700 if you look at it, it was diaspora led growth. People came to India on vacation, saw the product, loved it, went back, saw the product there and started to buy. XUV 3XO is the first time where you see non-diaspora coming and buying the product. Which is a good sign.
Nepal and Sri Lanka have seen a dramatic change when it comes to electrification. The Nepal market has been captured by Chinese OEMs. And even in Sri Lanka, there’s a lot of action. As a SARC country, and as a leading player with good presence, how are you seeing Nepal and Sri Lanka as markets?
Those are interesting markets. In some ways, adjacent markets to play in. By the way, we launched BEVs in Nepal two weeks ago. We’ll see how it plays out. We’ll continue to play and learn. But just from a headroom to grow, from the size where we are, we’d love to do well. I think the simple answer to you, I would put it as, forget Nepal, Sri Lanka.
Chinese OEMs are the next benchmark for all of us. It’s quite clear. I’m not surprised they are doing well and not just in these two markets. So, when we’re putting out our products, we’re looking very closely at these benchmarks. What we have to put out to stay as confident.
We will fight it out in the market, and let the customer decide. That’s the view I have. But wherever I go, I want to make sure I have a right to win and I have an ability to stay in the market. So, we’ll see how it plays out.
Could you elaborate on this digitisation initiative? How does it help bridge the gap between actual demand and production?
It’s a work in progress. I don’t want to say that it’s solving everything. But it’s already starting to show interesting trends for us to work with. At a fundamental level, what it does is on a monthly basis, my dealers now write down to the last detail what product they want next month.
So, I have a clear view of what each dealer wants. And I also know what the retail momentum for a dealer is and what he/she is selling. And then we look at it and say, okay, do you really want this or why are you asking for this? The new program helps us align production, manage parts commonality, and adjust for seasonality. In short, we can now plan end-to-end in a much more agile manner.
How different is this process compared to earlier?
A lot of this was done in Excel earlier and often after the fact. Now, we’re able to do it ahead of the fact and we’re able to use digital systems to figure out demand patterns or red flags that we’re starting to see. We couldn’t do it earlier at that level. The system was piloted over the last couple of years and rolled out two months back.
Does the platform leverage AI tools?
It has some aspects. A digital platform has been put in place and we’ll get to the AI part. AI works only when you have a lot of data to play with. We’re starting to get to a point where we can collect data from it. Just the digitisation gives a lot of visibility now. So, when I do my planning on a weekly basis now, if somebody says that I have a shortage of this product, I can instantly say that translates to A, B, C from a supply perspective.
And say that it’s not just a shortage of the product, it’s because of just these three components. Then the question is, instantly I can go back to the supplier and say, what can I do to make this happen? That agility is much more now than what used to happen. Earlier it would take two weeks. Now I can do it in a one-hour meeting. So, that helps move faster.
How has the response been so far?
Encouraging. The real risk is when the market shifts from supply-constrained to demand-constrained and OEMs miss the signal. That’s when you get into real trouble. Because you are thinking, this is a supply-constrained market, so keep producing. And you don’t know when that switch happens. Our system now helps us detect demand weakness at the variant level itself. So, then I can start to close those spigots off or put demand generation measures proactively.
But isn’t your primary data source still dealers and field executives? Do they have the ability to predict consumer demand accurately?
The primary source is the retail momentum–what is selling off the shelves and what is not. So, we are giving them all that data. We are giving dealers data about preferred products, variants, colors sold over a few months. We are also equipping dealers with historical sales trends during the festive season.
This data didn’t exist for them in one place to look at. We are hoping that it leads to a point where dealers can start to make educated decisions. And even when they don’t, we can look at data and say that you just put some order, but in reality, this is the number you need.