Daybreak - Software glitches are turning Mahindra’s new EVs into high-tech paperweights

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

Mahindra’s new EVs the XEV 9e and BE6 were marketed as software wrapped in metal. They promised the future. Things like augmented reality heads up display, auto park assist, a triple screen dashboard, an in car camera, and a digital key based on near field communication. But now, that long list of cutting edge features is proving to be a real bottleneck for the company. The Ken spoke to at least a dozen frustrated buyers of Mahindra’s new electric twins, who haven’t yet received their cars despite promised deliveries. Why? Well, the reason apparently is a software update. Buyers have found that the digital keys they were handed at the showrooms just wouldn’t work. Touchscreens were freezing, Cameras were glitching. The list goes on. Tune in. Daybreak is looking for a talented audio journalist with at least two years of experience. Check out the role here. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production. Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording.

Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get an alert as soon as we release our first episode, please follow Intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Mahindra's new EVs, the XEV9E and BE6, were marketed as software wrapped in metal. They promised the future. And I don't just mean they're futuristic names that sound a lot like Star Wars characters.

You see, Mahindra's pitch was full of buzzwords. Things like augmented reality heads-up display, autopark assist, a triple-screen dashboard, an in-car camera, and a digital key based on near-field communication. But now that long list of cutting-edge features is proving to be a real bottleneck for the company. The Ken reporter Supri Tanupam spoke to at least a dozen frustrated buyers of Mahindra's new electric twins,

who haven't yet received their cars despite promised delivery. Why? Well, the reason apparently is a software update. Buyers have found that digital keys they were handed at the showrooms just wouldn't work. Touchscreens were freezing, cameras were glitching, the list goes on. This naturally came as a surprise for these buyers. After all, Mahindra's launch on Valentine's Day was nothing short of a spectacle. And it worked. Mahindra ended up getting 30,000 bookings worth 8,500 crore rupees on day one.

Mahindra's message was clear they were not here to play they were taking on the likes of MG Motor and Tata head on deliveries were promised from 15th March they began technically on March 20th but for many buyers the dates kept on

shifting while some continue waiting endlessly others cancelled altogether like one buyer Deepak Varma from Indranagar Bangalore told Supri that the way they kept stalling the delivery just killed his excitement Deepak's allotted car reverted to booked status overnight.

Meanwhile in Hyderabad, Prasant Reddy's car key didn't work during the pre-delivery inspection. And what has Mahindra said in the middle of all of this? Well, it has since confirmed that both models now carry a waiting period of up to six months. But the on-ground experience that thousands of buyers are having across the country tells a whole other story. It suggests that the real problem isn't actually production. It's this complex software-driven design that Mahindra has put its money behind. Hello and welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host Rahil Philippos and every week my colleague Snigda Sharma and I

will bring you one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Redness Day, the 30th of April. I'm Snigda, the co-host of this podcast. And before we jump back in, I just wanted to share some exciting news with you. Daybreak is growing and we are looking to grow our team too. And if you're a journalist who listens to daybreak and thinks, I wish they'd cover this or I know exactly what would make daybreak even better, we would love to hear from you.

We're looking for somebody who's curious, who's driven and passionate about business and tech news. If that sounds like you or somebody you know, please check out the details in the show notes. Applications are open now. And back to the episode. Remember how we spoke to more than a dozen people who booked brand new Mahindra EVs? Well, all of them are dealing with different versions of the same story. Like Sagi, for instance.

His delivery date for the car kept getting pushed. But then came a new twist. The software had allegedly been updated, but now the car needed company approval for delivery. Approval of what? For whom? For what purpose? No one knows. Saagi certainly does. Turns out this isn't a one-off.

One executive at a car dealership insisted that the issue has been resolved. But online forums tell a different story. Hundreds of complaints day after day, many involving the XIV-9E and a growing backlog of customers trapped in a customer service tennis match. It's always the same back and forth. Mahindra blames the dealers, dealers blame Mahindra. Meanwhile, buyers? Well, they don't seem to be any closer to actually getting their cars, unfortunately.

But the real issue here, like I mentioned before, is design. You see, these vehicles are software-designed vehicles or SDVs. They are cars where software doesn't just enhance the driver's experience. It is the experience. To pull this off, Mahindra partnered with a German software firm called Vector Informatic to build something called Maya or Mahindra artificial intelligence architecture. It's middleware for the car's nervous system, the high-performing computers and control units that run everything.

The whole thing was built from scratch in under a year. Now, the upsides, of course, are obvious. You get a swanky new car straight out of a sci-fi movie. But the downsides? Well, one error in the code, and your car is reduced to nothing but a hunk of metal. It's complicated. You see, even after the software is developed,

it has to be carefully collaborated for each new vehicle model. This involves not only initial validation, but also ongoing updates after the car enters production. That's how they interesting. ensure performance remains consistent with evolving conditions. Now, that's why in these Mahindra cars, you would notice multiple test drives logged on them even before they were handed over to their new owners. Some customers, in fact, reported seeing 100 to even 220 kilometres on the automator at delivery.

One dealer we spoke to said they had to test drive the car after every single software update. And that's not all. Many who have actually been lucky enough to get the cars say that they are annoyingly glitchy. In some cases, wireless Apple car play doesn't work. In others, the car won't remember driver settings or the in-car security system is missing in action.

There are countless complaints. And in all these cases, the common refrain from dealers is, it will be updated soon. But how soon is soon? Stay tuned. India should be an agricultural powerhouse despite low yields,

debt and climate change. And in some ways, the country is already on its way to attain that status. In fact, there is one figure that tells the story really well. In the five years that led up to 2022, the number of Indians who could not afford a healthy diet, which is an intake of 2,330 kilo-calories from six different food groups in a day, went down by 16%.

And that is a faster drop than the global average. But India's increasingly abundant food production doesn't just address these needs at home. It also gives the country an edge in global trade. Even though the country's share of global farm exports is just a little over 2%, there are signs that this is going to grow. In the decade that led up to 2024, for example, India's farm exports more than double to over $48 billion. So there is an incredible untapped potential here. You can just look at Brazil how it exported $54 billion worth of farm goods to China in 2023. India's outbound shipments, meanwhile, to the US, its largest trading partner amounted to just

one-tenth of that amount. In fact, India is not subjected to high tariffs from the US, and that puts it in a position to develop a more favorable trade relationship in the future. So where does India's agricultural sector? go from here. To find out, go to the show notes of this episode and tune into the latest episode of our brand new podcast, Make India Competitive Again,

where my colleague Sita Ramanji breaks it down for us. And now back to Rahil. Despite the hiccups, Mahindra has been moving fast. In just 20 days, it claims to have delivered over 3,000 units of its new electric SUVs. But it didn't really have a choice after all. You see,

EV war has been heating up. And with MG amping up the race with its windsor, the pressure was on. It managed to undercut Tata motors on price and beat Mahindra to the market. It now competes with Tata's punch EV, Nexon EV and Curve EVs simultaneously and aggressively. Tata had to slash prices up to 3 lakh rupees to stay in the race. And an MG won up that with a battery as a loan scheme. Mahindra, meanwhile, took a more maximalist route. 19 to 22 lakh rupees for flashier features and a side of nationalism.

As an Indian brand, it enjoys an edge over MG, which ultimately is Chinese-owned. The problem was that this was just a cover price. Buyers would have to buy wall chargers too, which were priced between 50 and 75,000 rupees. In fact, most disgruntled customers had the same question. Why wasn't this a package deal? And it's not just a charger, even insurance was being peddled. at 1.5 lakh rupees, which is more than double the market rate.

Naturally, there was a ton of backlash, so Mahindra backtracked and made chargers optional. But by then the damage was done, buyers already felt blindsided. Several customers who did pay for the expensive chargers are still waiting for them to be installed. The 11.2 kilowatt charger requires a separate EV meter, and in some states, electricity boards are just not approving them. Their defense? Well, grids are already overloaded. The thing is, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The other issue is data and privacy. Mahindra's new EVs include an in-camera design to monitor the driver's state of mind,

as well as its companion app MeFor You DMS, which collects personal and vehicle data. Now, that's unfamiliar territory for a company like Mahindra. Handling biometrics and processing gigabytes of behavioral data without a proven track record will stress the system. Also, data privacy, cyber security and firewalls are things worth keeping an eye on. Simply put, the more connected the vehicle, the more exposed the user. In theory, how Mahindra collects, secures and processes this data will make it critical. But in practice, that part of the pitch remains largely untested in active driving conditions.

Now, here's the funny thing. Despite all of that, the unending weight, the software glitches, the back, bad reviews, cars are still flying off the lot. What they may have gotten right is timing. You see, India has cooled on BYD's local expansion plans. Tata's EVE share is dropping. Now is just the time for a new and upcoming EVMaker to enter the scene and shake things up. In fact, analysts Supreet spoke to said these two new cars have already made Mahindra April 2025's top-selling EVMaker.

Yet, infrastructure remains Mahindra. is Achilles heel. Tata has built over 5,500 charging points nationwide. Mahindra, meanwhile, just 540. To go all the way, Mahindra is going to have to do a lot more than just sell thousands of cars almost overnight. It's going to have to deliver, literally.

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras. Head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. Today's episode was hosted by Rahil Filippos and edited by Rajiv Sien.