New Mahindra EV, Battery Assembly Plant in Chakan Unveiled

 Pune: Mahindra, the SUV specialist, has inaugurated a new electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing and battery assembly facility at Chakan plant, near Pune.

This facility is part of Mahindra's broader initiative to produce Electric Origin SUVs and expand its role in sustainable mobility solutions, the company said in a statement.

Mahindra has allocated Rs 4,500 crore out of its Rs 16,000 crore investment plan for FY22 to FY27 to support EV operations, including powertrain development, software and technology, and expanded manufacturing capacity.

The facility, which will produce the BE 6 and XEV 9e SUVs, along with other upcoming born EVs like the XEV 7e, is a fully integrated, highly automated manufacturing ecosystem that uses over 1,000 robots and multiple automated transfer systems.

This new plant will house a fully automated press shop, an AI-driven body shop which would use over 500 robots and robotic paint shops.

The plant also has what Mahindra calls an Internet of Things (IoT)-based “Nerve Center”, which monitors the facility in real-time to pick out insights and have end-to-end traceability.

Women would comprise 25 per cent of the plant’s workforce, the company said.

It said the battery assembly is fully automated and it will be one of the world’s most compact battery manufacturing lines, employing patented processes and lean module assembly to simplify the manufacturing flow and eliminate anything that slows down the production process.

Along with the production, storage and transfer of batteries, this section is also claimed to perform multi-layered end-of-line testing that simulates real-world conditions.