XEV 9E - Will become The Silent killer of Luxury cars! Got double The amount You spent

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the XEV9E, Mahindra’s all new flagship electric SUV. It’s been launched with an introductory price of 21.9 lack rupees.

Now, the XEV in the name is there to link it to Mahindra’s XUV range of SUVs, but don’t think of this as just an electric conversion of the XUV700, because under the skin, it is all new.

It’s built on a cutting edge electric architecture that enables some seriously impressive stats. I’ll get into the details in a bit. Let’s start with the way it looks.

Table of Contents

XEV 9E Overview

Now, talking of frontal styling, the look is what I’d picture a face-lifted XUV700 to have looked like. It’s new age, it’s muscular and it whole lot more angular. Now, in terms of details, you get these DRLs which start low down on the bumper, extend all the way across the bonnet, and then dip back down.

Your main headlights are positioned here. They’re LED units. The grill is concealed, and actually, cooling requirements are met by this passage at the base of the bumper. You’ll also find the radar module for the ADAS system here.

Now, shifting focus to the bonnet, there are two interesting things. Firstly, you get Mahindra’s new Infinity logo. That will be used on all its electric vehicles. The other thing, the bonnet lifts up and there’s actually quite a lot of usable space under there.

You get a proper frunk. Capacity is 150 liters and it’s large enough to accommodate a few soft bags with ease. It’s at the size that you can tell that this is a very substantial vehicle. It measures over 4.7 meters in length, making it longer than the XUV700.

Now, going into the specific design elements, this one rides on 19 inch rims, but 20 inchers are optional as well. Then there is cladding around the wheels, but this is in gloss material, something that we’ve seen on a newer lot of electric SUVs around the world.

Coming back, you get flush fitting door handles which help aero in their own way. They pop out when you need to open the doors. You also get this gloss black treatment lower down on the doors, and this is there to signify the position of the battery pack. The XEV9E offers 207 millimeters of unladen ground clearance, 218 millimeters if you measure from the lowest point of the battery pack.

The wheelbase is 25 millimeters longer than an XUV700s, and that 2775 millimeter is a figure to remember. Moving further back, you’ll find the door handles for the rear doors on the C pillar rather than on the doors itself. But perhaps the one element that really distinguishes the 9E within Mahindra’s SUV universe has got to be this SUV coupe roof line. The sloping window line ends in a pretty high decked tail.

Beyond that, Mahindra has also given full width LED lighting and that adds in a lot of drama to what is already a SUV pretty big on show value. Now, other details of note, you get a slightly spoiler-like look at the top of the windscreen, a shark fin antenna up there, Mahindra’s new Infinity logo at the back, the vehicle name right here, and gloss black finish for the lower section of the bumper.

Hidden behind a panel on the left side are the charging ports. The position might not be ideal for all users. The tailgate is powered and gets gesture control and opens to reveal a 663 liter luggage compartment.

There’s room for large suitcases, but do note, while the space is deep, it’s not particularly tall. Also, the loading lip is high. That’s because under the boot floor sits a space saver spare tire beneath which sits the rear axle electric motor.

Now would be a good time to talk of what’s under the skin at the core of the XEV9E. As mentioned, this is not an ICE to EV conversion. Rather, the 9E is a born electric SUV underpinned by Mahindra’s new Inglo skateboard architecture.

A rear mounted motor, rear wheel drive arrangement is standard and the architecture also supports a front motor enabling all-wheel drive. Inglo will be the base of a whole host of Mahindra EVs of different sizes, including the radical but significantly smaller B6E. The only common dimension for all Inglo products will be the 2775 millimeter wheelbase within which resides the battery pack.

XEV 9E Interior

Among the models to come is an electric version of the XUV700 with a conventional SUV silhouette. Doors that open 90 degrees make getting into the XEV9E an easy affair. Inside the XEV9E feels like a familiar space, but also very different from the one that we’ve seen on the XEV700.

That’s because of the impression of these three screens. So you get digital dials, a center touchscreen, and a third screen dedicated to the front passenger. Now, I’ll get to the screens in a bit.

The other things that has changed on the inside is the steering. You get a new two-spoke steering wheel. It’s flat bottom and it has this illuminating effect so when the car is off, it’s completely blank, and when the car comes on, it all lights up.

Looks really nice. It’s got touch-operated buttons and, uh, buttons on top for the region modes as well as a button lower down for one pedal driving and another for the boost function, which I will talk of later in the article.

I’ll cover the interior essentials first and then get into the tech and features. The front seats are really comfortable, nicely padded. They get power adjust as well as a memory function, and there’s also a manual lumbar adjust control which is on the side of the seats.

The front seats also get ventilation, but the control for which is on the touchscreen. This is a recurring theme in the cabin.Now, because a lot of the functions have now moved to the touchscreen, the center console has become freer, so you get this area over here. There’s a wireless charging pad here, two USB Type-C slots over here.

The center console has also been refreshed thanks to this new gear selector. Two cup holders, a pretty usable bay between the front seats. You also get nice and large bottle holders on the doors. The glove box is well-sized too.

Quality-wise, the XUV90 does well with nice materials for the most part. The piano black looks good, but is prone to scratches. I do wish Mahindra didn’t go for a touch panel for key switches like the hazard lights.

What included tech?

And there’s a lot of it onboard made possible by what Mahindra calls MAIA or Mahindra Artificial Intelligence Architecture. This high-speed ethernet-based backbone is a next-gen electrical and electronic architecture that’s needed to feed the data-hungry network of software and hardware for everything from the infotainment system to ADAS and vehicle functions.

Let’s start with the 12.3-inch digital dials. The screen is vibrant and offers different themes for each of the driving modes. It can display a full-size map, show the ADAS at work, and can also relay feed from the side cameras.

Also included is a sophisticated head-up display with augmented reality that puts info of your choice in your line of sight. Direction arrow overlays and turns are particularly cool. The 12.3-inch center touchscreen is slick and responsive to inputs and is packed with apps and features, some handy, some fun, and some unnecessary.

You will need time to learn the different menus and where what is, and frankly, it’s not the best layout of interfaces. Mahindra says the software is still a beta version and things will be sorted.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is included. There’s a battery and charge readout with a lot of details of interest, and there’s even a lap timer and performance timer.

The list of apps is particularly long, including for video streaming and gaming, though some others just feel like overkill. The apps I tried did work really smoothly. The screen also serves as the display for the 360-degree cameras. Camera resolution is good, but the 3D view wasn’t super slick.

The touchscreen is also the go-to control for other car functions, such as the drive mode selector, climate control system, and sound profiles. You can choose how you’d like your 9E to sound, a race car or a V8 if you please. A unique inclusion is a camera at the roof, part of DOMS or Mahindra’s driver and occupant monitoring system.

The camera has multiple uses. It very effectively monitors driver alertness and can also be used for video calls or as a security device to remotely give you a view of your car’s interior. You could also use it in selfie mode and have a laugh with friends and family using the AI filters. You can also play with the lighting.

There’s the option to have your car put on a light show synced to your music, and there’s 16 million color options for ambient lighting. The ambient lighting extends to the large glass roof, and you can switch between different effects.

Again, very cool. You won’t enjoy the large glass roof only at night. Now, this glass roof really bathes the cabin in a lot of light, and the glass house is actually quite large.

Frontal visibility is good. Visibility out the sides is also good. But that sloping roof line does take a toll on rearward visibility. You really can’t see all that much out of the back. And what also compounds matters is that the rear headrest comes straight in your line of sight.

Special Front passenger screen

If it’s the front passenger seat for you, you get a 12.3-inch screen of your own. The 12.3-inch screen dedicated to the front passenger is a unique inclusion on the XUV90, and it’s something that we’ve typically seen on significantly pricier and higher-end cars.

Now, the screen itself is really nice to use, and it packs in a whole universe of apps and features, including some shopping apps. So if you’re really stuck in a long traffic jam, you know where you can kill time. Buy some clothes or buy some groceries.

Y- the options are endless. Then, of course, the apps of perhaps more interest and, uh, the ones that will be used more on this screen are the ones for video streaming. So you have your YouTube, Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar.

You name it, it’s there. It’s a great way to keep occupied on the front passenger seat, which is the seat of choice for a lot of owners. But it’s not without its quirks, and I’ll get to that in a bit.

There are some ergonomic oddities in the cabin as well. For instance, the power window switches.

Now, they’re toggles, they’re really nice to touch, but when you want to move the window down, you have to push upwards, and when you want the window up, you have to push downwards. It’s sort of counterintuitive.

Then, the more time you spend in the car, you’ll also realize that there’s perhaps too much bundled into the touchscreen.

Mahindra XEV 9E Features

On the whole, you have to hand it to Mahindra for going absolutely all out with the tech and features on the 9E. In addition to all that I’ve spoken of, there’s a brilliant-sounding 16-speaker, 1400-watt Harman/Kardon sound system with Dolby Atmos that really sucks you into the sound experience. And there’s auto parking too.

A particularly handy feature is the option to control the car via the key fob and have it roll into a slot in a tight parking, saving you the struggle of getting in and out. The feature set really is up there with cars three or four times the price.

Safety features of XEV 9E

The safety list is long too, with seven airbags, ABS, ESC, hill hold control, hill start assist, as well as ADAS that relies on inputs from 12 ultrasonic sensors, five radars, and six cameras. Mahindra is gunning for glory with a full five-star rating in crash tests.

However, there’s no official crash test rating at the moment. Over to the backseat, entry to which, again, is very convenient.The XEV9e offers a really good backseat experience, and I’m not talking only in terms of electric vehicles, but vehicles at large.

I specify that because EVs with their battery packs positioned under the floor are not known to offer the best seating position. Now, that is not an issue on the XEV9. As you can tell, I am set very comfortably.

There is not, uh, that knees-up seating position that we have become accustomed to in a lot of electric SUVs. Now, in terms of space, I’m really comfortable. The front seat is set to my driving position, the passenger seat is level with that, and I am really well taken care of on legroom.

And there’s also a boss mode function, so pull this lever and push the seat forward, and this seat gets even more legroom so you can really stretch out at the back. Now, the seat itself is very well padded.

Uh, what’s also nice is that you get backrest adjust, so you can adjust it to your liking. Taller occupants, uh, someone of my height or slightly taller, will find headroom tight, but average-sized adults will be really well taken care of.

Even a third passenger will not feel out of place on the backseat of the XEV9e. What helps middle passenger comfort is an absolutely flat floor. What’s nice is that all three seats get three-point seatbelts, as well as adjustable headrests.

But when the middle seat is not in use, you can fold down the center armrest. It’s got two cup holders. You also get bottle holders on the doors. Other features at the back include air conditioning vents.

There’s a wireless charging port over here, and Mahindra also offers a dock to mount your iPad, and it also includes a 65-watt charging socket on the seat itself, so that is a very nice inclusion.

This bring-your-own-device function allows you to control car features from your attached iPad or tablet. If I have to nitpick, I will say that the rear center armrest isn’t aligned with the armrest on the door, so this one is a bit high. The other thing, of course, is this ivory upholstery. It is very easy to get dirty.

Battery, Range and Charging

Onto the powertrain. The XEV9e is offered with two battery pack options, lithium iron phosphate, or LFP is the chemistry of choice for the batteries, while the battery packs are made up of blade cells that are compact, energy-dense, and strong.

Mahindra says the battery packs offer the highest level of safety, and have been tested for impact, thermal load and water resistance. Mahindra is offering an incredible lifetime warranty on the battery for first owners.

The base battery pack has a capacity of 59 kilowatt-hours, while the larger of the two battery packs is 79 kilowatt-hours. Mahindra has revealed official range figures only for the 79 kilowatt-hours version for now, 656 kilometers on the Indian MIDC cycle, and 533 kilometers on the WLTP cycle.

Mahindra claims a 500-kilometer-plus real-world range. Charging options include 7.3-kilowatt AC and 11-kilowatt AC charging, though unusually, the cost of the charger and installation is over and above the cost of the vehicle.

There’s also DC fast charging up to 175 kilowatt that allows a 20 to 80% charge in just 20 minutes. You’ll be lucky to find a charger of this speed in your city, but it’s good to know the car is ready for the infrastructure when it comes.

Motor and Performance

While we’ll have to get the 9e for a longer duration to put the charge time and range claims to the test, there is much else to cover today, like performance. Both battery pack versions use rear axle motors that drive the rear wheels.

Peak power is 231 horsepower for the 59 kilowatt-hour version and 286 horsepower for the 79 kilowatt-hour version, though torque is 380 Newton-meters for both. Featured here is the more powerful of the two, and it is impressive.

Press down on the accelerator pedal, and you’ll experience this immediate go. It is very satisfying, and overtakings will not require any pre-planning. You get three driving modes, and to be really honest, you’ll have ample performance even in the mildest of the three, which is called Range Mode.

Everyday mode, which is the default setting, gives you added pep, but on days in which you’re in a hurry, you’ll want to switch to Race mode. That has the electric motor feel its sportiest.

And you don’t necessarily need to be in Race mode to experience the full might of the electric motor. There’s a boost button here on the steering, so whether you’re in Range mode or Everyday mode, you get this short burst of all that the motor has to give.

We did a zero to 100 kph run and got a 7.3-second zero-to-100-kph time on the onboard timer. Really impressive. Like other EVs, the 9e doesn’t make a song and dance about the performance on tap.

What the 9e also does really well is refinement. Road noise, wind noise, suspension noise, all very well contained, so you can have very soothing experiences or also enjoy the most of the Harman/Kardon sound system without any unnecessary background disturbances.

Braking and Suspension and ride comfort

It’s good on the brakes too. The XEV features brake by wire, which means there’s no mechanical linkage between the pedal and the brakes. Pedal feel is good, as is stopping power from the all-round disc brake setup.

Regen braking, that uses the motor to slow the car down, is there too. There are three levels of regen braking, and you can actually feel the step between these three levels. You also have the option to put regen completely off so the car will coast on when you lift off the accelerator pedal.

What’s also included is one-pedal driving, and that is the strongest mode of regen, and it’s strong enough to bring the vehicle to a halt. And, uh, over the course of driving through Chennai city traffic, I did find, uh, that one-pedal driving was all that I needed.

I really didn’t use, uh, the brake pedal to slow the vehicle down or bring it to a halt.The 9E uses independent suspension front and rear, and the arrangement includes semi-active dampers.

In a nutshell, damping force can be altered in response to the surface in all of 15 milliseconds, says Mahindra. The 9E also scores really well on ride comfort. Now, it’s got these large tires, so it is not fazed by small potholes that might, uh, litter your route.

It really takes them with a good deal of confidence and feels like a tough vehicle, feels like a Mahindra in that sense. The 9E is also surprisingly easy to drive.

What is Steering effort?

The 9E is a big vehicle, it’s a heavy vehicle, but you don’t get that impression from the driver’s seat, and that’s because at low speeds, the steering is light, you don’t need much effort to twirl it, and even the turning circle is surprisingly small. You can even let the car assist in some aspects of the drive experience.

ADAS functions

The 9E packs in a long list of ADAS functions, and I have been using a lot of these over the drive out from Chennai, and I have to say, it is pretty well-calibrated to Indian driving conditions. Lane keep assist is quick to lock onto the lanes and does its job well, uh, to keep the vehicle centered on the lanes.

Now, of course, it does get thrown off on, uh, poorly marked roads, but what is really nice is that you get a clear indication of when that happens on the head-up displays. So that is really nice. Then you have adaptive cruise control.

Again, it’s been doing a good job of maintaining a safe distance to the vehicle ahead. You can adjust, uh, the distance to your comfort level. It also has the ability to bring the car to a complete halt, uh, and get moving when traffic starts moving.

So again, a feature that will add a lot of comfort to your driving experience. Another safety feature that works really hard in the background is attention assist. So if, uh, the system detects you fiddling around with the menus for too long or perhaps even taking out your g- uh, phone o- on the move, you’ll get a warning on the instrument cluster.

So that is a nice feature to have in a very distracted time. I didn’t try out emergency braking, but Mahindra says the system has been fine-tuned to better read Indian road conditions and can identify and react to a cow now. All’s not perfect though.

Irritants

There are some irritants also on the 9E, and they’re small things, but they do get frustrating over a long day of driving. Take for instance, the buttons on the steering wheel.

Now, they’re backlit, they’re touch, uh, sensitive buttons, uh, but they don’t work really well. So for instance, you have adaptive cruise control, pressing it also presses the horn, and you don’t want that when you just want to adjust, uh, or activate a feature.

The front passenger screen is also a cause for concern. Now, I have noted that when I’m actually looking towards the left wing mirror, my eyes lock onto the content that’s being streamed on this screen, and that is a cause for concern.

Mahindra should have added, uh, a privacy layer or filter so that this screen is obscured from the driver’s view. Then when you want to change modes, you have to use this shortcut button over here, but the modes are on the far side of the screen, so it’s a bit of a stretch. It should have ideally been closer to the driver.

What’s also not very easy to use on the go is the control for the air conditioner. So you have to press over here, you have all your settings, temperature and all, but I have noticed that when you’re adjusting the blower controls, the screen just disappears mid-setting.

So these are small things that have to be ironed out and can be ironed out by the time the 9E makes it to the market. We got to experience another side of the XEV 9E at Mahindra’s expansive SUV proving track outside Chennai.

The facility is home to 20 tracks, including a high-speed test track where you can max out the 9E. It was the handling track that revealed much. One of the surprises of the 9E experience is the way it handles. Now, this is a big and heavy vehicle, so you’d expect it to be roly-poly.

Well, it isn’t, and that’s all thanks to the big and heavy battery pack being positioned low down in the body. So there’s not excessive, uh, body movement when you turn from side to side, and that means you can carry more speed than you’d expect to. And when you do that, you will hear the Goodyear tires protest.

This is not the kind of car that I thought I’d really enjoy on Mahindra’s handling track, but here we are. Grip levels are good. It feels poised, and it actually even feels quite agile and is quite open to changing direction quickly.

What’s an integral part of this experience is the steering. It’s really nicely weighted, so it’s, uh, doesn’t require much effort to twirl at low speeds, but when you’re going faster, you will feel that added weight that gives so much confidence when you have to make a quick direction change.

The semi-active suspension really does the heavy lifting, particularly when you’re going faster, you can feel, uh, it in race mode. It’s really fighting, uh, the forces to keep the 9E nice and flat.

And, uh, you can tell the difference in the suspension and the steering calibration when you move to everyday mode or range mode. Things become lighter, easier, and looser. Being rear-wheel drive, there’s less forces for the front wheels to tackle and steering feel on the whole is nice.

On the subject, the 9E is rear-wheel drive, but it’s not an overtly sporty setup. I think Mahindra has wisely chosen to give this very balanced dynamics, which all manners of drivers will be able to enjoy.

When you add up the different facets of the 9E’s driving experience, the way it performs, the way it drives, the way it handles, what you’ll realize is that this is a mechanically very well-sorted package. And honestly, it comes across as a world-class product, something Mahindra should be proud of.

Price and first verdict

It’s hard not to come away impressed with the Mahindra XEV 9E. Big on-road presence, smartly turned out, and comfortable and roomy inside, it ticks the usual SUV boxes. But it’s as an EV that the 9E really impresses.

The powertrain is fantastic, delivering an experience that you’d get in a car a few rungs up the price ladder. In ride and handling too, the 9E is up there with global models. The other draw is equipment.

Talk comfort features, safety features, or even flashy kit, the 9E’s list is long. However, with so many features and so many different systems talking to each other, Mahindra will have to ensure that the tech runs glitch-free, and that’s no easy task.

Also, the confusing UI/UX needs improvement and maybe even a redesign further down the road. Customer deliveries only start by Feb or March 2025, so Mahindra has some time for last-minute fixes.

Prices for the 9E start at 21.9 lakh rupes ex-showroom for the base 59 kilowatt-hour variant, and we expect the fully loaded 79 kilowatt-hour variant with all the bells and whistles to come in under 30 lakh rupes.

Factor in all that you get for the money, and you’ll find immense value in the 9E. Question is: will buyers shopping at this price point ditch their beloved petrol and diesel SUVs for an all-electric 9E? The pull factor sure is there.

XEV 9E – Will become The Silent killer of Luxury cars! Got double The amount You spent