Mahindra begins Gen4 Formula E testing after two-month delay

Mahindra Racing has finally put its Gen4 package on track after a two-month delay, stepping up its preparations for the 2026-27 Formula E season.

The Indian manufacturer shook down the as-yet-unnamed successor to the M12 Electro for the first time in mid-July. It has since run the car virtually every week, with the first full test taking place on 4 August. 

The initial running was split between the Elvington and Abingdon airfields, with the latter also hosting the two full-fledged tests conducted so far. 

Mahindra reserve driver and former Maserati/McLaren racer Jake Hughes was responsible for the majority of the running, although Edoardo Mortara also briefly jumped into the car last week. Mortara’s short appearance was aimed at providing additional feedback, as neither he nor team-mate Nyck de Vries has been confirmed for the 2026-27 season.

Mahindra had initially planned to begin the test programme for its Gen4 car in May, having only received the green light from the company’s board in November last year.

Although it had started laying the groundwork for the new package long before receiving approval from Mumbai, the initial May date would have already put it several months behind rival manufacturers, which had started testing hybrid Gen3/Gen4 packages as early as November 2025.

Further delays, caused by supply chain issues and “programme risk-management decisions”, pushed Mahindra’s track debut back to mid-July.

In a statement issued to Motorsport, the Banbury-squad admitted that the later-than-planned start to testing has “increased pressure in some areas”, but insisted that the delays have “not changed the overall development timeline or the team’s target for Race 1”.

"It simply means we need to extract maximum value and learning from every test,” the statement continued.

“The programme remains challenging, as expected with such a significant new generation of car, but it is progressing at full pace.”

Further running is scheduled in the coming months, before all manufacturers converge at Jarama on 16-20 November for the first official pre-season test of the year. The 2026-27 season, the first to feature FE’s new 800bhp car, is scheduled to get under way at Jeddah on 18-19 December, subject to the prevailing situation in the Middle East.

Mahindra has made tangible progress in recent years, after new team principal Frederic Bertrand led a top-to-bottom overhaul of the squad.

Having finished 10th in the championship in the first two Gen3 seasons, it has climbed to fourth place in the 2025-26 campaign with just the final two races in London still to run this week. Mortara has scored four pole positions so far this year, while de Vries put the team back in the victory lane in Monaco and Tokyo after a near-five-year drought.