Post the presentation, we had an interactive session with Mr. Velusamy R (President – Automotive Technology & Product Development) and his team, where they candidly answered all the various questions that BHPians had and took feedback from existing owners
BHPian ChiragM recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
I think everyone has covered most/all of the important things that need to be said at the event. Anyways, my turn now so here goes:
BHPian Chetan_Rao and I started off at 5 am from Bangalore on a Saturday morning in my i20 N-Line. On the way we caught up with arun_josie in his Compass. While I took the first leg, Chetan took over driving duties post breakfast. I spent the time reading the official review of the BE6. I had to get up to speed as the last EV I drove was the Kona:
Our destination for the day was the Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai. That is Arun’s Compass ahead:
Once inside and registered, we had a quick catch-up with the Mahindra team and lunch. This was followed by presentations on the vehicles and the MRV facility itself. Post the presentation, we had an interactive session with Mr. Velusamy R (President – Automotive Technology & Product Development) and his team, where they candidly answered all the various questions that BHPians had and took feedback from existing owners. One thing was clear from this interaction: Mahindra is run by a bunch of passionate folks looking to compete at the global level with innovative EVs. The senior management also regularly drives the cars and gives their feedback on the development. The cars are benchmarked against more expensive vehicles from German luxury brands and Tesla and went through nearly 1,500 iterations.
Post this session, we were taken on a tour of their labs showcasing cell-to-pack battery structure, battery testing facility (which includes vibration and temperature tests), their simulation labs showcasing ADAS features, electronics (the cars have 50 kg of low-voltage wires in them), etc. While the cells are sourced from BYD (India does not have cell manufacturing facilities), Mahindra does everything from testing these cells to the manufacturing in-house. Post the tour, we checked into the hotel and called it a day after a few interactions over dinner.
Another early start to the day on Day 2. Post breakfast, we headed to the Mahindra SUV Proving Grounds, which was about 1.5 hours away. The drive was in a mix of BE6 and XEV9E with 3 BHPians in a car along with 1 Mahindra engineer. Everyone got to drive the car for at least 30 minutes each. I got into the first BE6 with GTO and Omkar:
Omkar enjoying the back seat:
Flag off:
I took over driving in the second leg. I quickly got comfortable with the car and switched to Race mode from Regular to enjoy the acceleration. However, the jerkiness from the sudden acceleration was getting a bit uncomfortable for the passengers, so I switched back to Everyday mode. The BE6 has a stiff set up but the ride was not uncomfortable on the B-roads to the track.
For the third leg, Omkar and I switched to the XEV 9E. Compared to the closed sunroof and tighter interiors of the BE6, I was welcomed into this one with an open sunroof and a more spacious cabin, which instantly added to the sense of roominess. The triple screen set up in the XEV 9E:
65W charger for rear seat passengers:
With its comparatively softer setup, the ride on the XEV 9E was more comfortable.
Listening to Linkin Park with Omkar driving. The YouTube streaming was through the embedded e-sim:
Arrival at MSPT. This was the second proving grounds I have visited, after Millbrook Proving Grounds in the UK. The facility is open to other competitor OEMs as well and is used to test farm equipment, commercial vehicles and passenger cars:
We were huddled into a meeting room and shown a presentation of the history of the track, its construction, and safety briefings.
We were split into three groups. Our group did the off-roading first with the Thars under the supervision of BHPian dhanushs:
A very happy Chetan:
Through the articulation pits:
Post this, we had a tour of the facility in a XEV9E. They showed us all the different types of test surfaces they have (asphalt, concrete) and the different types of road surfaces (including multiple potholes) and torture tracks that they have for testing. We also saw the 5G infrastructure for connected cars testing, rain showers, and steep gradients (30 and 57 degrees). The team demonstrated braking and acceleration and steering control on low friction surfaces meant to mimic black ice.
The last part of the drive was the high-speed track, which is a 4-lane track with designated speed limits. IIRC, the banking on lane 4 is 43 degrees. We were asked to stick to the third lane and were allowed 3 laps each. I did 2 laps in the BE6 and 1 lap in the XEV9E. Thanks to its stiffly sprung suspension, the BE6 felt much more planted at very high speeds compared to the XEV 9E. Please note that this is on track. In the real world, the XEV 9E is equally planted.
Post the drive we were given a demo of the autonomous parking feature. Interesting the car was benchmarked against a German luxury electric vehicle. The test showed the diagonal parking feature of the car without a driver in it. The car can also be summoned front for easy ingress into the car just in case the car is parked in a tight space.
We were then let loose to experience the handling of the car. Immediately jumped into the BE6 for this. We experienced a high-speed lane change, slalom, and a tight handling section. I felt I could have pushed the car a lot more in these sections.
We also experienced the autonomous emergency braking feature of the car.
Post lunch, we toured the labs in place at the Proving Ground. These included suspension testing facility said to be one of two in India (the other is in Natrax), battery testing where we saw how laser welding of the battery pack was carried out. The last tour was the crash test facility showcasing the infrastructure they have. The crash test dummies are kept at a controlled temperature and each dummy is said to cost upwards of 3 crores Mahindra has recently purchased a new dummy used for Euro NCAP testing which costs 13-15 crores
Conclusion
Kudos to Mahindra for being so candid and showcasing all their capabilities to us. The team learnt a lot on what goes on behind the scenes during the development of a car truly appreciate the efforts behind the product. We met a team driven by passion which reflects in their offerings. My pick between the two cars is the BE6 as I prefer smaller and stiffly sprung cars.
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