Mahindra open to investing in EV battery cell maker to secure supplies – CEO
By Aditi Shah
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s Mahindra & Mahindra may think about investing in a battery-cell firm to satisfy future electrification wants, its CEO mentioned, after the corporate raised funds for its new electrical automobile (EV) unit at a $9.1 billion valuation.
Mahindra on Thursday raised $250 million from British Worldwide Funding for the unit and is exploring a partnership with Volkswagen AG to supply such EV elements as batteries and motors.
Whereas the Volkswagen deal would meet Mahindra’s “brief to medium time period” battery wants, Mahindra CEO Anish Shah mentioned the corporate was open to some form of “funding with a worldwide chief” within the battery-cell house if it wanted to safe future provides.
“Our intent is to not get into (manufacturing) batteries,” Shah mentioned in an interview. “There are individuals who do it very properly. We are able to associate with them; we might be a co-investor in some kind. We need not personal it and run it.”
Mahindra plans to launch 5 electrical sport-utility autos (SUVs) over the subsequent few years. These fashions are anticipated to contribute as much as 30%, or about 200,000 items, of its complete annual SUV gross sales by March 2027.
Rising demand for EVs and disruption of provide chains throughout the globe are pushing automakers to have a look at methods of getting better management over provides and prices. Some carmakers are spending billions of {dollars} on mines and factories for motors and batteries – a departure from years of relying solely on suppliers.
Automakers are additionally cautious of conditions just like the pandemic semiconductor scarcity that result in manufacturing stoppages. Many corporations nonetheless face order backlogs due to provide issues.
Shah mentioned that, aside from batteries and motors, most of elements for EVs weren’t very completely different from these of combustion-engine automobiles and Mahindra produced a majority of these components in-house.
“If we are able to get an settlement like now we have with Volkswagen to safe (battery) provides, that is what we are going to do. If there’s some funding we have to make to safe these provides, we are going to try this,” he mentioned.
Mahindra’s plans come as Indian corporations search to capitalise on billions of {dollars} value of incentives being supplied by the federal government to construct EVs, a part of a coverage to satisfy nationwide local weather change and carbon discount objectives.
India’s EV market, dominated by native carmaker Tata Motors, represents only one% of the nation’s annual gross sales of about 3 million autos. The federal government desires this to develop to 30% by 2030.
(Reporting by Aditi Shah; Modifying by Bradley Perrett)
