Automobile Desk: Domestic automobile manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra has made its electric SUV portfolio accessible to Indian customers to a great extent. Expanding the scope of its much talked about 'Battery-as-a-Service' (BaaS) scheme, the company has included it in its entire 'Origin Series'. With the implementation of this new financing model, there has been a direct decline of about Rs 7 to 8 lakh in the initial ex-showroom price of the vehicles.
The biggest advantage of this new strategy is that now the compulsion for customers to pay the full price of the battery at once while purchasing the vehicle is over. The company has divided the financial structure of the basic body of the vehicle and its battery into separate parts. Under this, customers can choose separate finance for the chassis and body of the vehicle, while the battery will be paid for per kilometer as per its usage.
The benefit of this new policy of Mahindra is now being given on every variant of BE 6 SPORTEQ, XEV 9S and XEV 9e. If we look at the initial figures, under this scheme the starting ex-showroom price of BE 6 SPORTEQ has been fixed at Rs 11.45 lakh. Along with this, customers will have to pay Rs 3.75 per kilometer for using the battery.
In this sequence, the XEV 9S model has been introduced in the starting range of Rs 12.65 lakh, where the battery usage charge has been kept at Rs 3.75 per kilometer only. Whereas the base price of XEV 9e, the premium offering of this series, has been fixed at Rs 13.90 lakh, in which also the battery usage charge per kilometer is only Rs 3.75.
Automobile market experts believe that the biggest hurdle in the adoption of electric vehicles was their huge initial price. Seeing the initial response from customers, Mahindra has decided to implement this flexible payment model on all its new models. By removing the cost of the battery, the burden of down payment and initial EMI becomes lighter to a great extent. However, clear details of the battery financing deadline and other legal terms to it are yet to be revealed by Mahindra.
