How the Mahindra BE6 And XEV 9e Make Every Other Affordable Car Look Boring

Try looking away when a Mahindra BE6 or XEV 9e glides past. It’s not easy. These aren’t just new cars with electric badges and fancy lights. They’re mobile statements, challenging everything we’ve come to expect from car design.

While other manufacturers cautiously dip their toes into the future, Mahindra has cannonballed in, reimagining not just how cars should look, but how they should feel to live with. The result? Every other car on the road now seems a little too familiar, a little too safe, and frankly, a little too boring.

Design That Feels Like a Glimpse of Tomorrow

You’d be forgiven for thinking the BE6 and XEV 9e were concept cars somehow let loose onto public roads. But that’s the point. Both are built on Mahindra’s INGLO platform, which frees them from traditional design constraints.

Without the need to accommodate bulky engines and transmissions, the proportions shift radically. The BE6, with its sharply sculpted panels, split bonnet and flowing coupe-like silhouette, looks more like a show car than a mass-market electric SUV.

The front is a lesson in restraint and modernity. There’s no oversized grille pretending to be necessary, just a clean, aerodynamic face defined by floating LED lighting and fine detailing that invites a second look. At the rear, twin spoilers not only suggest speed but channel air with engineering intent. The BE6 doesn’t shout. It whispers futurism.

The XEV 9e takes a slightly more grounded but equally bold approach. Its coupe SUV profile hides its 4.8-metre length well, while the full-width LED lighting at the front delivers visual punch with purpose. The interplay of light, shadow and surface detailing ensures it never blends into traffic.

Cabins That Don't Settle for Predictable

Outside may win the stares, but it’s the interiors where Mahindra truly sets a new benchmark. The BE6’s two-spoke steering and suspended twin-screen layout look ripped off a spacecraft, yet feel intuitive. The aircraft-style gear selector and toggle switches add flair without compromising usability.

Meanwhile, the XEV 9e delivers a cabin experience unlike anything in its segment. A seamless 43-inch display runs from pillar to pillar, housing digital instrumentation, infotainment and even a dedicated passenger screen. It transforms the dashboard into a responsive, customisable interface that feels more like an upscale gadget than a static car part.

Both models offer ambient lighting that syncs with music, ‘infinity’ glass roofs that transform the space during day or night, and colour/material combinations that shrug off the traditional black-and-chrome interiors we’ve come to accept. Even the illuminated ‘BE’ logo inside adds a subtle sense of occasion.

Not Just Style for Style’s Sake

All this design drama isn’t just for Instagram reels. The BE6’s form is backed by substance. With a rear-wheel-drive layout, 282 Bhp-380 Nm, and a 0–100 km/h time of 6.7 seconds, it’s more than just a looker. The packaging benefits of the INGLO platform allow it to ride flatter, handle better, and offer usable space like a 45-litre frunk under the front bonnet, something most combustion cars simply can’t.

The XEV 9e matches this performance with more focus on refinement. While it carries similar hardware, its tuning is biased toward comfort and executive usability. Both models offer over 450 kilometres of range in real-world conditions, making their design ambitions practical, not just provocative.

Tech That Feels Native, Not Tacked-On

In-car technology often feels like an afterthought, but here it feels baked into the DNA. Powered by a Snapdragon 8295 chip, the infotainment systems support split-screen navigation, video calls, and even gaming, without the lag most systems suffer from.

The Harman-Kardon audio setup with Dolby Atmos doesn’t just fill the cabin with sound, it actively adapts to the type of music being played, enhancing specific instruments based on regional genres. Music maestro AR Rahman, who helped design this, owns a XEV 9e.

Driver-assist tech is also tailored to local conditions. From recognising cattle and rickshaws to understanding road markings obscured by monsoon rains, the ADAS suite feels like it was built for the roads these cars actually drive on, not a European test track.

Making the Exceptional Feel Expected

It’s one thing to offer concept-level design and flagship technology. It’s another to do it at a starting price of ₹18.9 lakh. That’s where the BE6 and XEV 9e truly unsettle the market. They bring with them an implicit question to every other manufacturer: why should buyers settle for less?

It’s not just about making electric mobility appealing. It’s about reshaping what the entire car-buying experience looks like. When a car offers better audio than a ₹65 lakh SUV, more engaging screens than a ₹1 crore luxury sedan, and still costs less than half, the ripple effects go beyond competition, they reset expectations.

Rewriting the Design Playbook

The BE6 and XEV 9e may not be the first electric cars on the road, but they are among the first to use electrification as a design opportunity instead of a marketing crutch. Their presence is more than visual. It’s emotional. They connect in a way that most cars no longer try to. And that’s what makes them so disruptive.

Where most manufacturers are cautiously evolving their ICE-era designs into electric forms, Mahindra has thrown out the old playbook and started from scratch. The result? Two cars that don’t just look futuristic, they make everything else feel like yesterday’s idea of what a car should be.

So next time one of these glides past in traffic, don't be surprised if your own car suddenly feels a little too ordinary. The BE6 and XEV 9e have moved the conversation. The rest of the industry now has to catch up.