Mahindra Electric (ME), the electric arm of Mahindra & Mahindra has in a quiet move, given up space in its corporate office in Bengaluru. Informed sources told ET that the company had given up a floor of space primarily necessitated by people movement.
The company has over the last 6-8 months lost a number of people across board. While ET could not independently confirm the number of the exits within the electric business, sources say a significant number of mid to senior level employees including engineers and programmers have quit the organisation in the recent 6-8 months.
ME has also seen a number of hi-profile exits including Mahesh Babu, Martin Murray, Satish Rajagopalan and Allahbaksh Naikodi. There has also been the movement of the company’s Last Mile Mobility (LMMM) sales and marketing personnel to Mumbai.
With Suman Mishra as the new CEO of ME post Mahesh Babu stepping down being Mumbai based, it was felt that it made sense to move some of the marketing and sales employees to Mumbai, in addition to ME’s merger with its parent arm.
“At the moment we are expanding our EV facility in Bangalore and relocating few roles and functions to the plant to have them closer to productionising new products. We plan to set up a new software hub for EV team in Bangalore. A small team of LMM Business sales and marketing will be based in Mumbai”, said the company spokesperson.
“We have significantly enhanced the size of our EV teams to prepare for the future EV organisation and have a dedicated team in Detroit, UK, Bangalore and Chennai”, added the spokesperson.
Mahindra’s EV business is clearly at an inflection point, with EV passenger vehicle sales down to a trickle. While Mahindra has failed to crack the personal EV segment, it is seeing better traction in B2B it’s last mile mobility with its three wheelers and smaller four wheelers for goods and people transport with products like Treo range and the eAlfa, which was the brainchild of Babu.
Even as the eKUV was showcased in the last auto show expo and a price range announced, experts say the vehicle has its own set of teething problems in terms of range and could be under pressure to launch it at the already announced price considering competition in product pricing and range, industry experts maintained.
Earlier in March 2021, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited consolidated Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited (MEML), a step-down subsidiary, into the company. The consolidation was laid down to categorize EV operations into two focused verticals: Last Mile mobility (LMM) and Electric Vehicle Tech Centre.
“We are excited about the electric XUV 300 which would come in early 2023. The eKUV100 is in the final stage of development and testing and will be in the market by the end of 2022, as was earlier announced”, said the company spokesperson.
As part of its focus in electric mobility, the company announced a fresh capital investment of Rs 3000 crore to capitalize on opportunities in Last Mile Mobility (LMM) and the launch of SUV EV platforms. The born electric vehicles will be in market in the next 3-5 years.
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Babu has been one of the many hi-profile exits from the Mahindra Group in recent times, post serving the company for over a decade.