Tata Motors wants to be India’s best-selling electric car brand

Tata Motors is on a product offensive with EVs and wants to be the leader of the Indian EV market, with the company targeting both fleet and private customers.

In an interview with Economic Times, Shailesh Chandra, President, Tata Motors Electric Mobility Business, said that as a manufacturer, Tata should be seen as a very strong player in EV space and that the company should not be catching up but rather others to catch up with the company. To support this, Tata is aiming to have complete abilities of design, manufacturing and supply chain with respect to EVs in-house. The company may not have immediate threats, but with Maruti & Toyota preparing a Heartect-platform based electric car to launch next year, Mahindra with the long-range S210 e-SUV next calendar year ,Hyundai with its ‘Smart EV’ in 2022, MG with its sub-10 lakh price EV in 2023, the EV landscape of India is set to change dramatically.

Mr Chandra appreciates the government for introducing the FAME II scheme but would like the support to extend to private segment vehicles as well. The company has already requested the government to consider the proposal. Currently the government offers a subsidy of INR 10,000 per kWh for INR sub-15 lakh price vehicles in the commercial segment.

Tata Motors is gearing up to launch the Nexon EV tomorrow that is will be priced between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 17 lakh ex-showroom. With an ARAI-certified range of 312 km, the Nexon is also the first car to feature Tata’s Ziptron technology that will propel all Tata EV models with a range of over 250 km.

Some of the Nexon electric’s features would become default items on future Tata electric cars. The 129 PS permanent-magnet AC motor and the 30.2 kWh lithium-ion battery would either be scaled up or down based on the size of the car. Tata has said that it has the best-in-industry dust and water proof battery pack which meets IP67 standards and offers 8-year/160,000 km warranty on the motor and battery. Another feature that would become the norm is the ‘ZConnect’ which offers 35 advanced connected car features like location-based services, charging station finder, alert services, driver behaviour monitor and remote commands.

Tata Motors’s next electric vehicle is the Altroz EV which is expected to launch in the first half of 2021. The Altroz is the first product on Tata’s Alfa platform, which is built to support electrification. Tata has confirmed that every product with the Alfa platform will be considered for electrification, leading to media speculation that the Tata Hornbill urban SUV would become the fourth Tata electric car. The company will also continue to update products like the Tigor EV for the fleet segment.

Source: Economictimes.Indiatimes.com