Late to the party: Can Mahindra catch up in Formula E’s Gen4 era?

Mahindra may have been the last manufacturer to begin the test programme for its Gen4 challenger, but there is optimism within the camp that it will be able to catch up to its rivals, even if it ends up starting the 2026-27 Formula E season on the back foot.

The Indian manufacturer pulled off one of the most remarkable transformations in Formula E history, going from being the slowest manufacturer at the start of the Gen3 era to becoming a multiple race-winning outfit by its conclusion. In fact, Mahindra ended up third in the teams’ championship in 2025-26, only behind FE heavyweights Jaguar and Porsche.

But Gen4 is a different beast, and while manufacturers can carry over some of their learnings from the previous generation, the new regulations have effectively created a fresh development race. 

Mahindra isn’t shy about admitting that it is behind the curve when it comes to the development of the car. Having received approval from the company’s board in Mumbai only in November last year, at a time when its rivals had already started putting hybrid versions of their Gen3/Gen4 prototypes on track, it was always going to play catch up. 

Mahindra then missed its original target of beginning testing in May due to supplier issues and “risk management decisions”, further compressing the development timeline ahead of the start of the new season in December this year. It wasn't until mid-July that the team shook down the car for the first time in the UK, with first fully-fledged tests following shortly afterwards. 

It’s a complicated situation, but having completed a full overhaul of the organisation in the last few years, the Banbury-based team isn’t in the same dire situation it faced when Frederic Bertrand took over the keys from former team principal Dilbagh Gill in late 2022.

“It's obviously no secret that we are late to the party. It's a fact. I won't deny it,” Nyck de Vries, who delivered Mahindra two victories this season, told Motorsport.com.

“But it's still the same group of people. I think we will be able to maintain a very consistent group with very low staff turnaround. So, I see that as a strength and I hope that will enable us to catch up a little bit relative to our competitors. 

“But we know and we cannot deny that the learning curve will be steep. But I have full faith in everyone that is here.”

Planning the development programme

Given the time constraints, Mahindra has been smart with how it has approached its development programme. Aware that its rivals had already logged hundreds of miles, it knew that rushing the debut of an under-developed car could have backfired.

Ensuring the successor to the M12 Electro was reliable from the outset was crucial. And having already built strong relationships with suppliers, who had started work on the Gen4 car long before the Mahindra Group greenlit the project, it was largely able to avoid the pains its rivals faced during the early phases of testing.

“Now the car has been tested, we know what the weaknesses are and what are the points that are a little bit higher than expected,” Bertrand told Motorsport.com.

“We are working hard on consolidating the higher ones and trying to recover [in areas] where we want it to be. It is a normal development process.

“Now the goal is to focus on making sure that the reliability is at the level we were expecting, which seems to be the case. It gives us a lot of gain on now performing the test on developing a more performant car, and not to be [focused] too much on reliability. That was one of the reasons we also delayed the moment to go on track.”

Slow start?

Mahindra has been regularly testing the car since it hit the track for the first time in mid-July. Test driver Jake Hughes was responsible for the early development, but by the end of August, both de Vries and team-mate Edoardo Mortara had driven the successor to the M12 Electro.

The plan is for Mahindra to join other manufacturers in a combined test in October, before the official pre-season running at Jarama in mid-November.

De Vries admits that Mahindra could face a slow start to the Gen4 era, but is equally confident that the team would be able to claw its way back quickly.

“The time difference is obviously something that you can't bridge, regardless of all your resources,” he said.

“I think time is definitely an advantage that they [our rivals] have on their hands. Because it's a very sophisticated car. The hydraulics are complicated. It's a lot more powerful.

“But it doesn't mean that we won’t be able to get there. But I think you might need to be a little bit patient with us in the beginning.”

Bertrand wants to temper expectations after Mahindra’s strong end to the 2025-26 season, stressing that the focus is on laying the foundations for a strong long-term project.

“Yes, we are a little bit behind but this we knew and we accepted the challenge,” said Bertrand.

“That's why maybe we use the first few races to really fine-tune what we have but that's the part of the normal development process. Everybody will be more or less in the same position at the beginning. 

“The only thing we will have to manage at that moment is how fast we can react to things where we see that we have a lack of performance, and manage expectations because people will already expect that we will win races. We need to calm everybody down and give us the time to do things properly so that we are building.”

Mahindra's Gen4 car

Photo by: Mahindra Racing

The trump card

When Bertrand took over Mahindra, there was little he could do in the short-term to fix a car that was clearly underdeveloped. It wasn’t until the evo version was introduced two years later in 2024-25 that he could see the fruits of his labour.

However, Formula E’s two-year evo upgrade cycle has been replaced by a Hypercar-style token system, allowing manufacturers to upgrade specific areas of the car without waiting for the mid-cycle rules refresh. 

This is why Bertrand is confident that the race-winning team he has put together will be able to react quickly if it finds itself struggling compared to rivals at the start of the Gen4 era.

“It was an important element for me to tell Mahindra [management] that we can go with a bit of delay, because even if at the beginning we see that we have a small deficit somewhere, we have the joker system. We don't need to wait two years or even more to be able to change [things]. 

“So, the fact that we have the possibility of reacting [on a] much shorter [time] is something which definitely helped in the confidence, that even starting a bit later, it’s not like we are stuck for the full period.” 

Asked why he believes Mahindra can be competitive in the Gen4 era, Bertrand said the team could carry over a key advantage from the current era.

“I would say we are quite strong at four-wheel drive right now and the car is a four-wheel drive car,” he said, referring to Gen4 cars having permanent four-wheel drive. “So probably we can hope that the learnings we currently have from four-wheel drive will help us.”

The 2026-27 season, the first to feature the new 800bhp Gen4 machines, is due to kick off in Jeddah on 18-19 December this year.