Mahindra has put a firm date on something it had only gestured toward before. R Velusamy, President of Automotive Business at Mahindra & Mahindra, confirmed to Autocar India exactly when Google Gemini will reach every Electric Origin SUV the company has sold — not just the newest one.
"From 1st January 2027, Google Gemini will go live on all other cars, including the original BE 6. That's the advantage of MAIA architecture," Velusamy said.
Which Cars Are Actually Getting This
Here's the specific breakdown. The recently launched BE 6 Sporteq already has Google Gemini built in from day one — that part isn't new news. What Velusamy confirmed is the timeline for everyone else: the XEV 9e, XEV 9S, and the original BE 6 will all receive Gemini via an over-the-air software update starting January 2027, no dealership visit or hardware upgrade required.
That's a meaningful commitment. Rather than treating Gemini as a feature exclusive to whatever's newest on the showroom floor, Mahindra is extending it backward across its existing customer base — vehicles people have already purchased and are already driving.
What Gemini Actually Does Inside the Car
The feature sits inside a suite called TEQ_Talk, part of Mahindra's broader "TEQ" feature set that debuted with the BE 6 Sporteq. It transforms Mahindra's in-car MAIA assistant into a conversational AI system, moving away from rigid, fixed voice commands toward more natural, everyday language.
According to Mahindra, the system runs on 17 specialised AI agents working together, supporting more than 100 core vehicle functions and 48 applications — spanning navigation, entertainment, direct vehicle controls, and general knowledge queries. That's a genuinely broad scope for an in-car assistant, closer to a smartphone-level AI experience than the narrow command-and-response systems most cars still ship with.
More Than Just a Voice Assistant Update
TEQ_Talk isn't arriving alone. Existing owners will also gain access to the wider TEQ suite of features introduced alongside the Sporteq, including Secure 360 Pro — a system that lets owners monitor their vehicle remotely through its 360-degree camera setup and dashcam footage.
Through Mahindra's Me4U app, owners will be able to check live camera footage and saved recordings, trigger an audio relay function, and track their vehicle's location. A digital car key ecosystem is also part of the rollout, extending access across smartphones, smartwatches, and NFC key cards — giving owners multiple ways to unlock and start their vehicle beyond a traditional physical key. Vehicles equipped with a passenger display will also gain a parental lock feature as part of the same update wave.
Why "MAIA Architecture" Is the Key Phrase
Velusamy's specific framing — crediting MAIA architecture for making this possible — points to the real story here. MAIA is Mahindra's underlying Software-Defined Vehicle architecture, built on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 chipset with a zonal electrical and electronic setup. That foundation is precisely what allows features developed after a car has already been sold to reach it anyway, through software alone.
This isn't a universal guarantee, though. Mahindra has been clear that exactly which Sporteq-era features reach which existing vehicle depends on hardware compatibility — some capabilities need specific sensors, cameras, or processing power that may not be present on every variant across the BE 6, XEV 9e, and XEV 9S range.
Why This Timeline Matters
Putting a concrete date on a promise changes how customers can plan around it. "Coming eventually via OTA" is a vague commitment; "live from January 1, 2027" is something an existing owner can actually count on and budget their expectations around.
For an industry where feature exclusivity has traditionally been used to push customers toward upgrading to a newer model, Mahindra's approach here runs counter to that instinct — betting instead that keeping existing owners genuinely satisfied, through meaningful software upgrades long after purchase, builds more brand loyalty than withholding new capability until the next model year arrives.
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