Mahindra BE 6e First Drive Review: Pure Insanity!

Let’s begin this report with a bit of digression. Writing for an online portal today is spirit killing far too often. If you ever wonder why most websites read almost exactly the same, it’s because of one corporation in silicon valley that’s rendered everyone into a puppet for search engine optimization. In a way, that’s also why every car today seems like a duplication of the same core concepts. 

The truth is, when you’re trying to be universally-likeable, safe, aerodynamic, comfortable, feature-loaded, efficient, practical and affordable at the same time, desirability doesn’t just take the back seat, it gets hidden under the boot floor.

 The BE 6e, however, seems like a break away from this. It’s an exercise in top management trusting the young, passionate designers and engineers who make cars and letting them have something of a field day. Spoiler alert: We won’t tell you if it’s a gamble worth taking just yet, but it’s definitely one that’ll get you to grab a seat at the poker table.

Watch Me Smoke!

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by ZigWheels (@zigwheels)

This isn’t the kind of smoking that’ll make you reach for a nicotine patch but one that’ll leave a patch of rubber on the tarmac. With rally champion Gaurav Gill behind the wheel, the BE 6e entered the circular dynamic platform at Mahindra’s SUV proving track (MSPT) at 160kmph, before locking into a drifting session that kept going for nearly 2 minutes! 

It’s where we saw this SUV that looks like something pulled out of a Hotwheels pack behave exactly like one launched on a toy track. The BE 6e is not a beautiful car. It’s not an attempt to make some aristocrat whip out his finest words to describe curves or caressing lines. It’s two things - a showcase of how the lines between concept car and production car have been almost erased, and an impressive showcase of variety in capability because let’s not forget, this is the same company that makes the ruggedly simple and inoffensive Bolero.

Not only does the BE 6e use LED lights to garnish its real estate, it uses the lights as a very active member of the style pack with an illuminated logo, dynamic turn indicators and day-time running lights that’ve been spliced into the face (seemingly) with a katana. And those aren’t even what you’d call the quirks. That’d be the aero gap above the bonnet, the flush-fitting pop-out front door handles and the rear door handles hidden where the door meets the roof.

The stance itself is rather stout. At 2775mm, the wheelbase is longer than most compact SUV’s but it still has 207mm of ground clearance and remarkably short overhangs. And while most cars can change character with the colour option applied, the BE 6e stays polarising whether you get it in a traditional black or white or the bright orange. Big 20-inch alloy wheels come as an option, but you get 18-19-inch wheels as standard. And even when the wheel size drops, the styling doesn’t get any more moderate. Simply put, the BE 6e’s design either makes the sale or stops you from even entering the showroom.

Double Checking

Yep, still a production car on the inside even though it doesn’t look or feel like it. From the shape of the front seats to the knobs for the power window controls and the bar in the middle separating the front passengers to the airplane-styled roof-mounted controls, the BE 6e speaks volumes about why this car needed a sub-brand to fall into. 

Even the gear selector is a jet-thrustor style lever though it’s as much “oh no” in quality as it is “wow” in look. It also doesn’t get a proper shift action and it doesn’t take much to move it between drive modes which isn’t good news if you have a passenger who may use it as a palm rest, only to knock you into neutral from drive. The plastics are hard but smooth and there’s a healthy dose of leatherette padding slapped onto most touch-points. 

Now, you might imagine a car with this much aesthetic overstimulation would make cuts on sensibilities but for four tall users (up to 6ft), there’s enough space in this cabin including headroom in both rows. Yes, there are drawbacks - you can easily bonk your head into the roof while getting in and the floor is ever so slightly making your knees go up, so underthigh support in the seat is a tad compromised if you’re very tall. 

Somehow, inspite of all the odd shapes inside, the door pockets are sensibly sized and there’s even a big storage gap under the centre console. The boot’s ok for either one big suitcase or multiple cabin-sized bags; not both, at least with the parcel shelf still in place.

Quirks & Features

• There isn’t a door handle, just a door strap - the kind you’d see in the Porsche 911 GT2 for the sake of “weight saving”. Unusual but functions as intended

• There’s a brand new key that gets its own magnetic slot in the centre console. This key can also be used to move the car back and forth for around 7 metres at a time.

• You get a selfie camera just under the roof console that can take photos, videos and even add filters to your face - WHY IS THIS A THING??

• Ok, that same camera also keeps an eye on and warns you if you’re dosing off or not paying attention to the road

• The touchscreen, besides offering wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay also has a sub menu called fun and work where you can view YouTube videos, OTT apps or even play games and shop. Evidently, your alarming phone screen time isn’t quite high enough.

• 16-speakers is perhaps 8 speakers too many for a car of this size but the end result is a brilliant sound experience that plays well even before you fiddle with the equaliser settings.

• The ambient lighting is piped in all around the cabin and even on the panoramic glass roof. There are pulsating modes as well if you want the disco experience you only saw in movies.

Hello Nikola

The Indian internet’s obsession with Tesla has one less reason to sustain as many of the gimmicks (and useful features) have made their way into the BE 6e. 

• Secure360: The high resolution 360-degree camera, besides showing you an indicator-linked feed and multiple-view angles, also functions as a CCTV when your car is parked (what Tesla calls Sentry mode).

• Groove Me: A light and music program that has every light in or on the car, the mirrors and the door handles perform a show for you.

• Real-time ADAS view: Open up the drive assist menu on the instrument cluster while driving and you get a real-time feed showing you the lane markings and a view of what the ADAS camera sees. So you can see it identify buses, motorcycles or cars individually though our traffic conditions can easily overwhelm this display or even prove to be distracting.

• Pawpal: Dog mode to keep the AC running while your pet is in the vehicle if you need to run errands with the car running

• Auto park assist: The BE 6e can detect and part itself into parallel, perpendicular or angular parking spots, using the phone app, key fob or while you’re in the car itself. You can even drag and drop a virtual parking spot but bear in mind, the cameras don’t account for changes in road depth. There’s a strong chance it won’t tell a gutter apart from the road, so it isn’t a system to trust blindly.

Other Features

Safety

Punch It!

Over 200 horsepower at your toe-tips for a car that costs just a shade over Rs 20 lakh on road. Much like they do with the petrol or diesel vehicles, Mahindra isn’t on the rooftops shouting about the efficiency, range figures or how eco-friendly EVs supposedly are. They’re highlighting how EVs do in fact make serious performance much more accessible.

0-100kmph takes just 6.7 seconds but that isn’t the highlight. It’s how the BE 6e feels quite comfortable doing this and it’s almost upsetting how drama free it is while doing it. No tyre screeching or stuff-you-into-the-seat action even with boost mode active and it feels right at home sprinting past 100kmph in a relaxed manner. 

What this also means is overtakes are easy at any speed and even with a passenger load. Importantly, the brake energy regeneration is calibrated exactly how it should be with no odd delay or sharp transition from acceleration - coasting - braking. That said, the one pedal mode seemed to have a mind of its own, and would disengage randomly. Something possibly specific to the test car but Mahindra has to fix before these cars hit showrooms.

Noise insulation and ride comfort is quite impressive too and unlike many EVs, especially those running on big wheels, it doesn’t feel too soft or stiff. Our drive started directly in Chennai’s peak hour traffic and the passengers in the car nodded off even with the assault of needless honking around us. And while there is a little side to side tossing over undulations, the suspension didn’t crash through some of the sharp potholes we encountered.

A basic impression of ADAS is it’s as India-friendly as it gets for an ADAS suite. Meaning it doesn’t trigger braking out of the blue for the most part but traffic around you will have the warnings, beeps and bongs going off every now and then. As part of the package, the car can also perform lane-switches and overtakes by itself (while using adaptive cruise control) when you use the indicators, of course, only if the car deems it safe to do so.

Add To Cart And Pause

The BE 6e pulls at your heart in a way few modern cars ever do. It appeals to your inner child and the starting price of Rs 18.90 lakh (ex-showroom) means you get tech from Rs 70-80 lakh luxury cars without having to save up till you’re geriatric to afford one. 

However, there are still two important things - it’s a brand new product in every way, hardware and software, and an unfinished product with the odd glitches we ran into. The instrument cluster froze, the gear selector feels flimsy and shifts modes without a failsafe, one-pedal mode disengaged unprompted and even the ambient lighting pattern on the roof hasn’t been the same across the cars we had at the drive or saw in Mahindra’s promotional clips.

 We’d wait for Mahindra to sort things out and address all bugbears before putting money down on a BE 6e but if you want to uptick your SIPs to get the funds in place for one, we’d encourage it wholeheartedly. Mahindra has indeed made an Indian car for the globe.