Mahindra's David Hopwood: How CMF helped shape the character of the BE 6

Car Design News was on the ground at the 2026 Move conference in London where we bumped into CMF chief at Mahindra, David Hopwood. Ever ready with the voice recorder, we asked Hopwood to talk us through his team's work on the electric SUV BE 6.

Car Design News: The BE 6 is a completely new brand for Mahindra. From a CMF perspective, what was your starting point? What did Pratap Bose's vision mean for you?

David Hopwood: It was important for us here to not just be a CMF team, but to integrate fully within the design teams. We were there with the exterior and interior teams so that what we delivered was actually achievable.

As you can see, the halo here is race-inspired. That was the whole theme. The place for this car is where you're sat now, in the driver's seat. It's a driver-focused car – so we wanted to encourage that.

What we especially wanted to do was make sure the materials and textures we put into this weren't killing the design. We wanted to support that design and the cues that are already there.

Because we had a blank sheet of paper, we wanted to make sure we had the right materials. We've got these textiles in here, for example, which are made from 50% recycled plastic bottles. That was an important story because we didn't want to package something that wasn't authentic.

We're looking at all the plastics too. We're not using paint or top coats on them, so they're recyclable. Circularity was really important in what we're trying to do, but it's a stepping stone. This is our first product and we want to take another step each time we go.

CDN: There are some really strong architectural forms inside. How did those influence the material choices?

DH: Working together was the key part of it because we wanted to enhance those features. Sometimes you can very easily put a finish on something that overdoes it. We wanted everything to be quite subtle.

We wanted people to have those second reads and second touch-feels. We wanted people to do exactly what you're doing there: "Oh, what's that?" It's almost about creating curiosity, and that's why we've chosen these materials.

On one of the lower packs we have a plastic IP topper, so we're trying to create a journey through the pack walk – creating a vision and a story that goes with it.

It was also very important that we celebrated Pack One just as much as we celebrated Pack Three. This vehicle has much more leatherette in it, but as you go through the range I think that level of reduction actually works really well with this vehicle.

CDN: The exterior colour is incredibly striking, whereas the interior is much more restrained. There's a nice contrast between the two.

DH: We looked to not be too shouty. We've got a very strong design DNA within this vehicle, both exterior and interior, and as a CMF team we could easily have taken the same approach.

Instead, we wanted to be very subtle and very subdued and, as I say, let the form and the tactility do the talking.

The exterior colour you mentioned, Firestorm Orange, was chosen because we wanted to encourage people to come and look at the car in the showroom. We thought the take rate might be a little lower, but it sits so well on the car.

My Instagram algorithms are crazy with the BE 6 — they're all in this colour because people want to photograph it and film it. The take rate has been insane.

CDN: The black side cladding really changes the proportions of the vehicle.

DH: Yes, that was a very conscious effort. The exterior team would tell you how important it is to break the car up properly. It is an SUV, but it has a sloping roofline with that coupé feel which makes it appear smaller. These claddings help bring the scale back and reinforce the height of the car.

They're doing much more than just being a CMF function. They're helping the proportions sit correctly on the road. The stance is just incredible and that's really important.

CDN: Pratap mentioned that in India people often experience cars at very close quarters because of the dense urban environment. Did that influence your CMF decisions?

DH: Yes. We actually started the design and development of this vehicle before some of us had even been to India. Then we travelled there and realised how important it is to understand the culture, the roads and how people use the product.

We listened carefully to how textiles are perceived. In the Indian market they're sometimes seen as a lower-quality material than they might be in Europe.

Rather than simply accepting that, we wanted to educate through the product itself. As a design team we believed this is the direction Mahindra should move in, so we were able to introduce these new materials.

CDN: I really like this speckled finish. Is that made from recycled material?

DH: At the very start we came into this thinking, "Let's try and use recycled materials."

Very quickly we changed that to thinking about recyclable materials. There's a very big difference, but it's an important step.

Within the CMF team we spent an enormous amount of time developing the grain on the plastics because you almost want people to sit in the car and not notice them. If that's the case, you've probably done your job.

But we also wanted to make a feature of this. This is what we call the aesthetic grain. We wanted it to be different, but still subdued so it wasn't too shouty. Because it's not coated, it has an end-of-life strategy and circularity. These parts can be broken down and reused.

One of our pillars was authenticity. I remember during one of my last visits we had an internal meeting where we coined the phrase "Design Tomorrow." That really captures our responsibility as designers. We need to be looking ahead, making those steps forward and taking responsibility through design.

CDN: I really like this feature where two different materials meet. It breaks up what could otherwise feel like a very large surface.

DH: This is leatherette. Again, it was a key feature of this first vehicle and of the halo around the driver-focused part of the cabin. We didn't want to overdo it. We wanted to play soft against hard.

We've looked at different tactile experiences between gloss and satin. You can do all these things without being too shouty and it works really nicely. You can strip everything right back and still appreciate the design in the headrest, the halo and all these key design features. Our role was to complement them, not overpower them.

Everything should communicate and harmonise — exterior to interior, passenger to driver, every element working together to make the space feel as large and comfortable as possible.

Ultimately it's about the user experience. We want people to get into this car, enjoy it and have a smile on their face. Whether that's because of the grain or the materials, everything is doing exactly the same job.

CDN: This pull strap is an interesting detail.

DH: Again, it comes from that racing theme. We wanted statement features inside the vehicle.

This pull-to-open strap has become a real talking point. The number of people who've mentioned it today has been amazing. We had to be quite stubborn to make sure it stayed because it's the sort of feature that can easily get engineered out as impractical.

Actually, we think it is practical. It's something you might see in a high-end Porsche or in race cars, so why shouldn't it appear here, touching on those same emotional points? It also opens itself up to multiple vehicle variants. We've already shown a rally concept and a Formula E version of the BE 6.

Simply by changing the CMF colour or graphics, you can create something that's exactly right for that particular edition. That's what gives it longevity.