The anticipation has been fever pitch. We've been talking about this moment for a while now, that massive debut from Mahindra when it comes to the electric space. Let's talk about that straight away with Rajesh Jejurikar. It's great to see you. Hi. Good to have you here with us. It's nice to be here. Absolutely, I appreciate your time. I know it's a crazy packed busy day for you today, but what a day. This is in many ways, like I said, something that was expected, but at the same time for the company, this is next level. It's a big deal.
Yeah, you know, when there was a lot of conversation three years back on how we were going to take on the EV space and the EV world, for us we said we've got to do it as a quantum lead. We believe the market will take two to three years from 2021, so 2024-2025 is when we believe the market will be ready, and at that time we've got to be ahead of the curve. The other thing I want to talk about, we've called this event 'Unlimit India,' and the reason for that is we believe that this is India's moment in history in the world space. What we've created and launched right now are two products based on the INGLO platform with MAIA as the brain behind it. We believe these are world-beating products, which is why yesterday and through today, what you witnessed is us comparing ourselves with global luxury brands at significantly higher price points, because we believe what we've created here can take on anyone in the world. This is hence not just Mahindra's moment of pride, but India's moment of pride, and we are really excited to have presented this to all of you and all our customers yesterday and today as well.
There's lots to understand, lots to break down in just what you just said as well. But first things first, the brands that we have seen, there's the B brand, there's the XUV brand. And why was it important to first have these separate brands? And clarify for us: are we supposed to say Mahindra XUV 9e, or is it just XUV 90?
It's just XUV 90, and it's BE 60. So it's not BE, it's just B. Because in a way, the two brands represent two very different personalities and characteristics, even though they are both on the INGLO platform. The B brand is a very strong self-expression; it's a driver's car. It's the car you want to drive yourself, much like the Thar is. It's really an expression of how you feel and how you want to live your life. The B brand is for that, the explorers, the adventurists. The XUV is a little more elegant, soft, sophisticated. You would love to drive it yourself, but you would feel very comfortable with being chauffeur-driven as well. The two brands are different. The XUV carries over the legacy of the XUV brand but in a completely different avatar.
Now you've had a situation where you've been able to coexist your current portfolio or your ICE portfolio with these kinds of attributes under one brand. So again, why the need to have two separate identities? Was it important from the point of view of the customer that you're looking at?
Yeah, so different design languages, and you understand this better than anyone else. Brands must represent design; it's such an important element of what the brand stands for. Even in our ICE portfolio, we use different brands like Scorpio, Thar, XUV700, or the 3XO to really bring alive the story of what that brand tells us. But there's still a unifying idea and unifying DNA under the Mahindra master brand, but each brand as a vertical stands and says its own story.
Tell me something, and going forward, all of this is going to happen within your existing dealership network. It's not like you're doing a separate retail strategy for these brands, which makes sense. But fair to say that a few years down the line, you would have just these different brand pillars: the SUV brand, the Thar brand, Bolero perhaps, and then of course these two becoming families unto themselves. Is that how it is?
So if you bring in electric Scorpio on the INGLO platform or any other platform which will be electric-origin, it would be Scorpio with an 'e' something. We carry over the origin brand into the electric space as well, so they become the sort of mother brand, and then you have model lines under that. We will think of variations, like XUV is a variation of XUV. Now these families themselves, you've got the 90, you've got the 60.
What's the road map? In the past, of course, you've shown us concepts, you've spoken about them being multiple attributes, body styles, shapes, and sizes. How is it looking for you?
We continue to have the pipeline of products that we spoke about, some of which were in concept stage and will productionize as per a certain schedule. We would expand the portfolio, but right now we want to focus on these two brands, settle them in vis-à-vis customer understanding, because there's a story to be told. We believe that education around the technology, the features, and any barriers that people may have to make the switch is something we must give time to customers to understand.
Yeah, it is a huge transition, not just for you but for the customer too. There's been years of this talk: first mover, yet late to the party. Where are the electrics? Why aren't they here yet? I respect that you made the very clear point that there was a point in the market where you saw a sweet spot coming, where acceptance and this transition would have already been underway, and then it was important for you to not just have an electric but have these really credible, strong products. Now we can see the embodiment of that in these cars. But was the tricky part to get them feature-rich, figure out how to benchmark against the best, or was the tricky part figuring out how to price them well? Now don't say both, because one without the other doesn't work.
