00:00G'day, I'm Paul. So we're over in India at the moment, hosted by Mahindra, and I wanted to walk
00:03you through a couple of the electric cars they've just launched here for the Indian market that
00:07could be coming to Australia soon. So I want to run you through both of these and just some of
00:12the genuinely incredible infotainment technology they've got. For a brand like Mahindra that you
00:17wouldn't really associate with tech or infotainment in this space, I think they've done a pretty
00:22impressive job. So I'll run you through that in a second. This is really going to be a high-level
00:26overview. Haven't driven these, won't be driving them either, but I just want to give you an idea
00:29of what they're doing and what we can expect for the Australian market as well. Okay, so this one
00:35here is called the XEV9E. So it's kind of a sort of sport back shape, which you can see at the back
00:42there, and it's only available as a rear-wheel drive. Both of these are fully electric. Battery
00:46capacity in India varies, but it goes up to around 80 kilowatt hours with driving range of over 500
00:52kilometres. I love also the fact that you've got a frunk here with around 150 litres of capacity in
00:58this one. The BE6, which is a slightly shorter vehicle, but on the same wheelbase. You can see
01:03there that the frunk is smaller, but has these sort of aero cutaways, which is part of the reason it is
01:09actually smaller. Now, the confusing part is that Mahindra announced a partnership with Volkswagen,
01:15but these vehicles use a BYD battery and an electric motor from a French company. But it appears that the
01:22Volkswagen partnership is still ongoing and they will eventually roll out stuff from Volkswagen as
01:28well. In terms of space, they claim class-leading interior space, and I'll show you the rear of them.
01:34The design is sort of pretty funky and out there. Decent ground clearance as well, over 200 mil for both
01:40of these models, even though they aren't obviously off-road capable. You are still able to do a bit of
01:46light off-roading with it. Decent boot space as well with underfloor storage. Charging, DC charging up
01:53to 175 kilowatts. This is the charging port over here, so crack that open. You can see you have a CCS
01:59Type 2 plug there. Close this boot and show you the room on the inside, and then I'm going to show you
02:05the infotainment system. So door handle is nestled into there. So again, they're claiming class-leading
02:10hip and side-to-side room, and also headroom as well. So it's quite a premium vehicle in terms of
02:16what they're trying to achieve with it. So infotainment, I guess holder there. You've also
02:20got 65 watt USB-C charging port. Air vents down the back there. Quite a nice sort of looking interior
02:28there with the white leather. Have a look at this. In terms of road noise, what they've tried to do
02:32is add acoustic glass around the cabin. So this has a layer in the middle. It's a bit hard to see
02:37because it won't focus. Basically layer in the middle there to prevent noise coming into the
02:42cabin from the outside. And I've got this on all sectors of glass on the car. So I think that's a
02:47good way of just keeping noise down inside the cabin. But this is probably the coolest part,
02:51the infotainment screen. So there's three screens side by side there, but what has really blown me
02:57away here is how fast this is. So you have in-built apps that you can run. So for example, if I open
03:02YouTube, it loads the YouTube app. I can then have a video playing here on the screen, but
03:07what you can then do is actually move this stuff around between the different screens. So
03:13if I bring this over here, I can move it over to that screen. Then what I can do is run it in
03:18theater mode. And then in theater mode, it runs it on both screens. And it is so fast. There is like
03:24no lag with any of this stuff. And it's got this massive sound system as well with Dolby Atmos and
03:30Harman Kardon. I mean, to think that you're getting this technology from Mahindra, which is not exactly a
03:35brand that has been prolific in this tech space, I think is really, really impressive.
03:40Now, in addition to all that infotainment stuff, have a look at this. This is a glass roof, right?
03:45And looks just like a normal glass roof. Now see those lines there? They're a little bit tricky
03:48to see, but see how they're pulsating? That is because they have an LED layer sandwiched between
03:54the glass layers on the roof. And it allows you to basically change whether it pulses, whether it's
04:00static, or whether it goes with the car's acceleration, or when it's cornering. It's a
04:06really cool setup. I haven't seen anything like that before. Very hard to see. I'm going to see
04:09if we can overlay some footage of how that actually works. Yeah, just a different concept on how to do
04:14stuff. You know, everyone has a glass roof these days, but being able to add all these lights and
04:19different colors into there just makes the car a little bit more unique in terms of the way that it
04:23works. Now let's have a little look at the BE6. It's slightly different there in terms of the
04:28interior layout. They've gone for, it's like a fighter jet cockpit. So dual screen setup.
04:33It sort of pans around the top there, and then this handle down the center with the gear stick,
04:40which looks pretty cool too. So even though this is shorter, sits on the same wheelbase. So you're
04:46getting similar amounts of room in the second row there. And see it's not too bad there in terms of
04:52the proportions. In terms of cargo space, back that open too. So I claim over 600 litres of cargo space
05:02here, which I think is a pretty decent figure. You can see the camo car cover. This is only just
05:06being launched here in India. All right. And there's the front two. So again, similar driving
05:11range because both of them weigh around the same. They claim it's under two tonnes, which is pretty
05:15impressive for an electric vehicle. Zero to 100 in both of them is around the sort of six to seven
05:20second mark. And they claim that if they do put an electric motor on the front axle as well,
05:24that they're looking at closer to five seconds or under, which is again, pretty impressive. And
05:29that might be what they do with the Volkswagen drivetrains when they finally get around to those. So
05:34yeah, pretty impressed here with the two electric Mahindra products. Like I said, haven't driven them,
05:38won't be driving them, but keen to come back and have a spin and see whether they do eventually make
05:43it to Australia. Because now from a design perspective, they look really out there. The specs are pretty
05:48good in terms of efficiency and what you're getting. That infotainment system and the compute power
05:52behind it with state-of-the-art tech. I mean, they were even talking about stuff that is common now
05:58in a lot of manufacturers, but Ethernet support networks for all the ECU modules for the cars,
06:04cloud connectivity, and state-of-the-art AI for driverless integration as well. So yeah, let me know
06:10what you reckon in the comments section below on Mahindra's new electric products. They appear to have
06:15been well received here in India where electric cars really aren't that popular. So I'm curious
06:20to see what you think about the BE6 and the XEV9E as well.
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