This exclusive deep dive into Mahindra & Mahindra's groundbreaking electric vehicle journey. We take Mr. Veejay Ram Nakra, ...
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0:31Let's get the tyres on the road, who will drive first?
4:17... and instantly there was that yeah there was like they were like okay this is it can we have this you know so we didn't even go through a a real you know hundreds of sketches and then which is your favorite part of the design of the 6e?
Well I'm sitting next to two Gentlemen who does not need any introduction but still I'll do it because this customary with me is Mr Veejay Ram Nakra Joint Managing Director and President Mahindra Automotive division. Pratap Bose needs no introduction he's the man with the midas touch the Chief Designer, the Chief man, Chief boss of Mahindra & Mahindra who has designed these two cars and with them we're
going to go and drive. Thank you so much, thanks Ramesh, thank you for having us on your show. Thanks Ramesh all be good to see you and I think these tyres are boring we should go back to the cars
Let's get the tyres on the road, who will drive first? First of all thank you Veejay and Pratap, this was long due and thank you for joining me for the drive
And disclaimer I won't be able to give any opinion because it's under embargo and you guys are driving so I don't know what the car I just nod that's about it but first of all big congratulations what a massive launch this was. You know the scale of the Mahindra launches always been very Grand but I think this was just a step up
Well you know, when Pratap put his pencil to paper and you know I going to give you a little bit of some anecdotes when you know Pratap actually started doing this he used to sit and sketch it on a piece of paper and he was so passionate about doing it, he used to do that and just click it and send it on WhatsApp to Rajesh and to me and when we saw that we were like wow, we were like wowed from the word go and just the design itself was so appealing and so sexy, that it is To be honest at that time we didn't think that we were going to call it uh sexy we did create the brand name BE which was about an authentic brand which allows you to be who you are and the project code name at that time was uh 05 ! 05 and Which I remember that the one showcase in London That's right and then as we created the product we started seeing flesh to the drawing and the most amazing thing Ramesh you'll remember when we showcased it in South Africa Right! At that time when people saw it they said your what you produced is so close to the concept you guys had created and that's what we've delivered and when we finally saw it in flesh and blood we thought it really is sexy and hence has been BE 6e which is a play on being sexy so it's called "be sexy", right? "be 6e" okay so there's a tongue twister there, so now what about the XEV 9e, is that not something that you thought we can give it some twist maybe we should have added 'S' in front of XUV would have changed the whole meaning well that's XEV 9e and uh clearly the two products are very different that is far more it's far about more elegant lines and of course Pratap will talk about the way he's conceived the two of them but clearly that was a more matured sort of a positioning of the brand and hence uh keeping the X factor in mind it became the "XEV" and we took nine because in the chronology of numbers when you start moving it's typically 3, 5, 7, 9 and hence 9 is the indication of it being a perfect blend of uh sophistication and premiumness
Correct! And that put together was the brand named XEV 9e
Pratap some hidden stories how this what were the thoughts behind when you designed this it was such an outlandish design you know, it never it never came to your mind because you know when you put your uh paintbrush to the whole sheet that it can be just taken or uh it just not appeal to everybody because this is of course a segment which is not it's also very conservative, at the same time you are trying to push the boundary with the design which is beyond I mean it's it's at first it shocks you and then you know it just grows on you.
Yeah so you know Ramesh we have four, four Brands uh that people love and are also very territorial about those Brands you know a Thar customer is very territorial about being a Thar customer true and we said you know I think Veejay's brief to us uh in addition to what Rajesh said was you know just make hot cars you know if you're doing it go all out let's go bold uh or we go home right and uh Veejay said let's also try and get a new kind of customer into the Mahindra you know family not other you know so can we look at a new kind of customer and that's how BE was born and and like uh Veejay said BE is like to be, be yourself be who you want to be and we there before had an opportunity Ramesh to do a totally different design language for the BE brand so if I look at the two products we've launched today or yesterday the BE 6e is like a fighter jet yeah whereas the the XEV 9e is more like a A Private Business Jet both fly but they both do it in a very different way different way you know so that's exactly how we looked at it in the design team so was there any design sketches which was this was the final product you always knew that you had to do something like this you know funnily we go through lots of sketches as you know uh but but uh you know Veejay is right, 6e we had a few pencil sketches that I you know sort of WhatsApp to our leadership group and instantly there was that yeah there was like they were like okay this is it can we have this you know so we didn't even go through a a real you know hundreds of sketches and then which is your favorite part of the design of the 6e? I think the 6e the cabin I really love because it's it looks tight but it's not if you sit inside it really surprises you with a Headroom and how's that happened uh Ramesh we've got the paint line between the the black roof and the body color which is much lower than what you would find in any other car usually dual tones are you know done differently so this when you see from the side view has a very nice dramatic roof line uh because that's all you see in the body color but you're really surprised when you get in and I like that sense of surprise I also like the halo around the driver
That was you know had you asked me that question I'm so sorry to interrupt no that's okay you know I'll be honest when Pratap sent us those designs I'm telling you I felt like I was a kid I was just I was just like I've been in the industry for many many many years but seeing a design like this which was so radical and so distinct you know we were clear it's going to bring so much freshness and this is so much Mahindra we've always been about being different but relevant difference bound and we broke that boundary and my favorite when I still remember when we went to his design studio and we sat in it for the first time when I sat and I had that Halo ring around and I was like I felt I was sitting in a formula E, yeah absolutely to me that's the favorite feature that I love on the you have the most uh most expected all the eyeballs are going to be you because Pratap's works gets over now and you take over and Velu did a lot of work, hundred percent, tremendous job,
incredible delivery no you know the leadership team the chemistry between all of you Rajesh, Veejay all of the team is so flawless I mean very few this magic happens when the team
Ramesh, if I can tell you something from that original sketch you know 2 and a half years ago to the car you see or the vehicle you see on the road today yeah the fact that it it looks like that original sketch is because of you you know these five or six people and the teams who can make it happen that we said we are not going to destroy or change this car in any way through the process so we actually protected the the design and everyone else work to to deliver this it's not easy it's a it's a it's a challenge at many levels our manufacturing guys as well
Coming to uh the numbers you know Veejay, I know that this is uh EV penetration is still not how the country would have liked it all the other players who have launched similar price point products uh let's not get to the specifics but they've not been able to get numbers for whatever reason are you sure that the this will nail it right the way it should be and you'll be able to get the numbers going and off the block
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Nakra, V. (2024, November 28). Exclusive: Driving The Talk With Veejay Ram Nakra & Pratap Bose | BE 6e, XEV 9e & What's Next! [Interview transcript]. TopGear Mag India. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1063715/
MLA
Veejay Nakra. "Exclusive: Driving The Talk With Veejay Ram Nakra & Pratap Bose | BE 6e, XEV 9e & What's Next!." TopGear Mag India, 28 Nov. 2024. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1063715/.
BibTeX
@misc{nakra2024_1063715,
author = {Veejay Nakra},
title = {Exclusive: Driving The Talk With Veejay Ram Nakra \& Pratap Bose | BE 6e, XEV 9e \& What's Next!},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, TopGear Mag India. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2024},
month = {nov},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1063715/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
