Volkswagen and Mahindra officially announce a new agreement signed between the two companies on May 18, which will focus on future collaborations on electric vehicles. Under the new deal, the Wolfsburg-based automaker will provide the Indian manufacturer with electric components from the MEB platform. The two companies are yet to finalize the scope of the new collaboration.
Volkswagen and Mahindra estimate the negotiations will be finished and fully legally compliant by the end of this year when full details should be disclosed. The goal of the new partnership is to electrify the Indian market, one of the fastest growing and most important automotive markets in the world, which makes it a key element in the global decarbonization of the planet.
Gallery: Volkswagen MEB platform
No further details are available at the moment but Volkswagen points out that the MEB architecture is highly flexible and allows other companies to build electric vehicles relatively quickly and efficiently in terms of investments. As a reminder, Volkswagen also has an agreement with Ford to provide the MEB platform for two electric vehicles (see the related links below) confirmed to come from the Blue oval over the next few years.
“Mahindra is a pioneer in the electric mobility space in India and a great partner for our MEB electric platform,” Thomas Schmall, CEO of the VAG components division, said. “Together with Mahindra, we want to contribute significantly to the electrification of India, a huge automotive market with enormous growth potential and high relevance for climate protection.”
The Indian market is currently dominated by combustion-powered vehicles which account for a huge portion of the roughly three million annual sales of new cars. Starting in 2035, in line with what Europe wants to achieve, India wants to have only zero-emissions vehicles on sale, which means the EV passenger car segment is expected to grow significantly in the next 10 years. By the end of this decade, industry specialists forecast that more than half of all new cars sold in the country will be fully electric.
