Mahindra Group's Anish Shah On Q3 Results, EV Sales, Rate Cut & More | NDTV Profit
📅 Feb 10, 2025NDTV Profit10 MIN18 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
NDTV Profit's Niraj Shah recently caught up with Anish Shah, Group CEO & MD of Mahindra Group on the show, India Market ...
Questions asked in this interview
8
0:54Could there be input cost pressures that might be difficult for the industry to meet if steel prices were to end up higher, or do you reckon it's something you'll be able to take in your stride?
2:30Do you expect the market to grow as much, or do you expect that you will essentially grow maybe at the expense of some of the others?
3:52How do you expect the export market to be for your vehicles, which are now being very well received in the Indian market?
5:10... trying to understand: if the rural markets are picking up, do you service them only with the existing launches you have, because I'm guessing rural may not have the appetite for EVs as much and might have a larger appetite for ICE engines?
6:42And is there enough done on the liquidity and the rates by the Reserve Bank in the last month to help corporates like yours in the next two to three quarters?
8:01Shah, currently for large corporates like yours, and because March is also coming up, or have the measures started kicking in and helping out on that front?
8:26Are all of them meeting the marks you might have internally set, or is there some work that needs to be done on maybe a couple of them?
9:03Does the banking commentary and the other commentary from the US and other regions help?
We spoke to Dr. Anish Shah, Group CEO and MD of Mahindra Group, about the company's PV sales numbers and what's the outlook for the quarter. Here's a small slice of the conversation as he talks about what will happen in the quarter to come, more importantly for FY25.
Yes, it does seem like clockwork, but I can tell you it's been a tremendous amount of effort put in by all our associates. This is a result of multiple businesses firing on all cylinders. We've been talking about that for some time, and we're seeing that in the numbers. That is what has enabled us to be consistent in our growth and provide a growth of 20% quarter over quarter from the quarter of the previous year, as well as on a year-to-date basis. We have grown 20% over the same time period the previous year.
I want to start off with autos naturally. But before I get to that, can I quickly ask you: you've done 14.4% margins, your consolidated margins, aided no doubt by what the tractor division is doing so well. We just heard the announcement that China has said they are not going to let the property sector slump, which arguably means that metal prices could have found a bit of a bottom. Could there be input cost pressures that might be difficult for the industry to meet if steel prices were to end up higher, or do you reckon it's something you'll be able to take in your stride?
So, if we look back at the chart we presented over time in the tractor business, we've been able to maintain margins despite fluctuations in the industry. The chart did not show commodity prices, but that's something we have been able to manage over time as well. The auto business has seen growing margins. This is again a function of great growth in the business as well as very strong operational excellence achieved by the team. There will be challenges along the way; we have seen many challenges. Our approach is to ensure we are ready to face them, we are agile in addressing them, and we will see quarters where input prices go up or demand slackens a little bit, but I think we're well prepared to address those.
Got it. Let me try and talk about some estimates now. Our math suggests that for FY24, the market size for electric vehicles was probably 90,000 vehicles. We've probably not seen dramatic growth in FY25. My analyst tells me that in the presentation and in the conference, you guys have said that you will do 60,000 in FY26, nudging up to nearly a lakh in FY27. Do you expect the market to grow as much, or do you expect that you will essentially grow maybe at the expense of some of the others?
It's going to be a combination of both. The market will expand because the quality of these products is something very different from what we've seen in the market today, and that will create market expansion. Some of it will also be gaining market share from others. But if you look at which one will be greater, my sense is market expansion will be greater because this will also enable us to get a much higher penetration of EVs in the Indian auto market, and that will continue to happen over the next few years.
And because you started exporting as well, I reckon the South African exports are EVs? Correct me if I'm wrong. But you're starting off on a low base and a low number relative to what Maruti does in an annual year, so I'm guessing the sky is the limit for you. How do you expect the export market to be for your vehicles, which are now being very well received in the Indian market?
South Africa is right now about the 3XO, not EVs yet. EVs will be focused on India because we expect a lot more demand than we can service, and it's important for us to meet that demand in India before we go to markets outside. But there is huge opportunity for us outside, and that is going to be one of the further growth vectors we have in the auto business. We are starting to see a lot more pull and demand for our products in international markets, as we have seen in India. We have not been able to serve international markets well enough so far because we've been focused on serving our customers in India, but as we increase capacity, this will clearly be a growth vector for us.
Not a bad problem to have. Dr. Shah, the other small question I would have is around rural versus urban. I remember in Davos you told me that you are following an EV-first strategy. In this result, you've said that there are no new launches in the ICE segment, so I'm presuming that 3XO and Thar are probably the two that go now. I've heard various other companies in other markets and segments, not autos necessarily, say that rural has started to perform better for them. I'm just trying to understand: if the rural markets are picking up, do you service them only with the existing launches you have, because I'm guessing rural may not have the appetite for EVs as much and might have a larger appetite for ICE engines?
9 more exchanges in this transcript
Sign in free to read the rest of this interview. No card required.
Shah, A. (2025, February 10). Mahindra Group's Anish Shah On Q3 Results, EV Sales, Rate Cut & More | NDTV Profit [Interview transcript]. NDTV Profit. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1044605/
MLA
Anish Shah. "Mahindra Group's Anish Shah On Q3 Results, EV Sales, Rate Cut & More | NDTV Profit." NDTV Profit, 10 Feb. 2025. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1044605/.
BibTeX
@misc{shah2025_1044605,
author = {Anish Shah},
title = {Mahindra Group's Anish Shah On Q3 Results, EV Sales, Rate Cut \& More | NDTV Profit},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, NDTV Profit. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2025},
month = {feb},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1044605/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
