People who are buying new cars are now considering build quality as a major factor, along with features. Brands have also realised this and are offering safer cars to customers. Indian brands like Tata and Mahindra are known for this, and now many foreign brands have also started following the same path. Not just ICE vehicles, but their EVs are also built strong. Here, we have a video where a Mahindra XEV 9E electric SUV remains drivable even after being involved in a serious crash and sustaining heavy damage.
The video has been shared by Akkinagpal on his YouTube channel. In this video, the vlogger spots a Mahindra XEV 9E parked at a charging station. The exact location of the car is not mentioned in the video. The Mahindra XEV 9E looks heavily damaged from a crash. The owner or driver of the car talks to the person who came in the damaged vehicle. The driver said that they had an accident on the highway where an animal, probably a nilgai, jumped in front of their vehicle while they were cruising at high speed.
The animal came from the right side, and before the driver could react, it crashed into the vehicle and damaged the right-side fender, bonnet, bumper, headlights, and front windshield. After the impact, the car lost control, and even the rear crashed into the median.
The owner mentions that the impact was so severe that the animal died on the spot. He also mentioned that there were two occupants, including the driver, in the car, and both escaped without any injuries. The airbags didn’t deploy because the driver claims that the animal hit the fender and not the front of the vehicle. If it had hit the front, the ADAS in the XEV 9E would have activated and possibly avoided the crash. The airbags would have also deployed in that case.
The Mahindra XEV 9E owner then talks about what happened after the crash. He mentioned that the car was functioning fine except for the external damage. The structure, including the pillars, remained intact. The windshield was shattered, and the driver created an opening in the broken glass to get a clear view of the road ahead and drove the vehicle to the nearest charging station.
The SUV didn’t suffer any critical damage, but the owner mentioned that the insurance of the vehicle had expired a couple of days before the accident. This means the owner will have to pay out of pocket to get the car repaired. He mentioned that he received an estimate of around Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 4.75 lakh for all the repairs and replacements.
This video is a good example that shows why insurance is important and how a sturdy vehicle can help in case of an accident. If critical components of an EV are not damaged, it can still be driven, just like the owner did in this video. However, we do not recommend doing this. In case of an accident, it may not be possible to assess the damage just by looking at it. It is always a good idea to take your vehicle to a nearby service centre and get it inspected before continuing the journey.
It is one of the safest cars on sale in India. It is also one of the highest-scoring EVs in Bharat NCAP. It scored 32 out of 32 points in adult occupant safety and 45 out of 49 in child occupant safety.
Even the BE6, which is based on the same platform, scored 31.97 points in adult occupant safety and 45 points in child occupant safety. This is not the first time we have come across such an incident.
Last year, when Mahindra launched the BE6 and XEV 9E, we came across a video where a BE6 test-drive vehicle crashed into a Datsun Go+. After the impact, the BE6 handled the crash well, and the front fender and bumper of the Datsun were damaged. The twist in this case was that the Datsun remained drivable while the BE6 was not, despite having no major damage.
It was initially rumoured that the car had a sensor failure, but Mahindra later issued an official statement saying there was no issue with the vehicle. It was not driven due to safety reasons and was transported back to the service centre on a flatbed to avoid any complications.