MUMBAI: Holy horsepower, Batman. India has just driven into comic-book history.
In a feat more Gotham than Gurgaon, Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd and Warner Bros. Discovery have pulled off what few in the automotive or licensing world would dare attempt: the launch of the world’s first Batman-inspired electric SUV.
The BE.06 Batman Edition – unveiled at an invite-only spectacle at the Fairmont Mumbai – is less a motorcar and more a muscle-bound statement on wheels. Cloaked in midnight black, bristling with Gotham swagger, and infused with design nods to DC’s brooding vigilante, the car is being billed as a “collector’s dream” – though for now it will be available only to Indian buyers.
What makes the story remarkable is not just the branding but the breakneck speed. From concept sketch to drivable reality in just 45 days – the blink of a Bat-signal – the project has stunned both motoring and licensing circles. In an industry where even minor editions can crawl through months of approvals, this was, as one executive put it, “execution at bat-out-of-hell pace.”
Warner Bros. Discovery’s theatrical business in India vice-president and managing director Denzil Dias framed the launch as a landmark moment for both sides of the partnership. “From Gotham vibes to Mumbai drives — presenting the world’s first Batman-inspired electric SUV, born from a stunning collaboration between Mahindra Group and Warner Bros. Discovery India,” he said. “This isn’t just a car — it’s a statement. A symbol of India’s rising power on the global stage of innovation.”
He added: “A first for India. A milestone for Warner Bros. Discovery. A proud moment for Mahindra. And a statement to the world. Bravo, team — you didn’t just launch a car, you launched a collector’s dream.”
The applause has been shared widely. At Mahindra, design supremo Pratap Bose is credited with sketching the dream, while colleagues Preet Inder Singh Kahlon, Salil Pawar, Reeti Nageshri, Nalinikanth Gollagunta and Rajesh Jejurikar gave it wheels. On the Warner Bros. side, Anand Singh and his South Asia consumer products crew – Sanchayeeta Choudhury, Ushaa Rai, Kartikeya Ahluwalia and Gitanjli A. – worked in lockstep with DC’s global franchise chiefs Adam Bodenstein and Kevin Morris. Vikram Sharma, Warner Bros.’s Asia-Pacific consumer products boss, was hailed as the “North Star,” with India leadership – Arjun Nohwar, Dias himself, and Deepa Sridhar – offering ballast. The seed was planted, fittingly enough, by SuperCorp’s Ada Garg and Yashovardhan Ganeriwala.
For Warner Bros., the partnership burnishes DC’s global franchise in a market hungry for pop culture tie-ins. For Mahindra, it injects the glamour of Gotham into its electric-vehicle play. The symbolism is plain: India is not merely consuming global brands, but shaping them, turning fantasy into factory output at speed.
The car is limited in availability, but not in symbolism. Like Batman himself, it is equal parts myth and machine, equal parts statement and story. To borrow from Bruce Wayne’s world: sometimes the car doesn’t just get you from A to B – it makes you believe the impossible.