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| Edited By: Yuga Chaudhari |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 18, 2018, 05:19 AM IST
Buoyed by the success of the XUV 500, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) has decided to roll out more such products from its state-of-the-art research and development centre in Chennai, Mahindra Research Valley (MRV).
The centre, which was formally inaugurated on Wednesday, played a key role in the development of XUV 500, launched last year.
For the record, the sport utility vehicle received 5,900 bookings within just two days of reopening of the bookings in January. The company had been forced to suspend bookings after it received over 8,000 bookings within 10 days of launch.
This, when industry sales of SUVs are around 30,000 a month!
Going forward, several tractor and other automotive products would be developed and tested at the MRV, said Pawan Goenka, president, automotive and farm equipment sector, M&M.
The company has invested `650 crore in the MRV, spread over 124 acres. The facility, designed by renowned architect Charles Correa, took almost six years to come up.
The company is focusing on research and development as it aims to create a larger global footprint, said Goenka. “Last year we invested `750 crore in R&D. Our R&D investment is about 3% of our revenue, which is comparable to any large automotive company in the world.”
“MRV will be a major enabler for our future product aspirations,” he said. “It’s time for us to go and take the next big leap in product development that’s why we have invested `650 crore for setting up the R&D centre. We thought it was worth it to spend that kind of money, which is more than what we invested in Scorpio or Xylo and almost same investment what we had put into XUV 5OO.”
The company has been working on four different engine platforms with its South Korean subsidiary Ssangyong.
The first of these is the new engine platform which will produce a range of engines - both high-end and low-end gasoline and diesel engines. “It’s a modular engine plan that we have made, where Ssangyong and Mahindra engines will not be identical but will be coming out of the same line,” said Goenka.
The second project is the dual clutch transmission, or DCT, technology, on which M&M is working jointly with an outside consultant.
The company will also soon start a project to develop the next generation electric vehicle powertrain. That work will be led by Mahindra Reva, jointly for M&M and Ssangyong.
The fourth project is a joint platform for Mahindra and Ssangyong, which is to be led by Ssangyong.
On the fuel side, work is on for developing new alternate fuel-based technologies, with a focus on electric vehicles, driven by Mahindra Reva at Bangalore.
The company’s next generation platform will see the light of the day in four years, said Goenka.
Another focus area is hybrid vehicles.
M&M is also working on the possibility of using biodiesel fuel in its vehicles. It has, in fact, launched a small pilot project where Scorpio is running on B100 (100% biodiesel).
Yet another focus area is hydrogen fuels, where the company is working with IIT Delhi. It had launched a hydrogen three-wheeler at the Auto Expo.
M&M is also looking to realise synergies of its automotive and tractor divisions and started work on a new tractor platform at MRV.
“We are the only major automotive company in the world that has the common automotive and tractor R&D,” said Goenka.
The centre consists of 34 labs and an extensive engine development centre. Currently 1,500 engineers are part of the MRV and this will be ramped up to 3,000, said Goenka.
