Tata Motors Betting Big on Electric Vehicles

Tata Motors is working on electric vehicles for private buyers and will soon introduce a higher range of the Tigor EV and a new model by the end of this fiscal year, said Shailesh Chandra, president electric mobility business & corporate strategy at Tata Motors.

The reduction in the prices of Tata Tigor EV by Rs.80,000 is just the beginning of Tata’s plans to expand its fleet of electric cars.

Following this price cut, the Tata Tigor XM which was earlier priced at Rs.12.35 lakhs will now be priced at Rs.11.58 lakhs. The XT variant, earlier priced at Rs.12.71 lakhs now finds its price reduced to Rs.11.92 lakhs following the GST revision. These prices do not include FAME II (Faster Adoption and Manufacture of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles) subsidy and tax collected at source at 1 percent on vehicles above Rs 10 lakhs.

The carmaker recently announced its partnership with Tata Power to set up 300 fast chargers for electric vehicles across 5 metros in India.

“We will come out with a very private focused product within this financial year, and we are doing a host of activities around it. That is the reason why we have started the charging infrastructure work now so that when we have to launch that product, in a certain number of cities that we have targeting, charging infrastructure should be visible,” Chandra said.

“We are also planning to come with a higher range version for Tigor which we will be bringing out in the market very shortly. That is the time when we intend to open it to the private buyers also,” he said in a statement.

4 New EVs in Line

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The development is in the direction at which Tata Motors’ Chairman N Chandrasekaran had hinted. “In the next 12-18 months we will have five electric vehicles in the market. This will be the Tigor, electric Nexon, electric Altroz a new Tigor with higher mileage and one more vehicle,” Chandrasekaran had said.

The Tigor is currently the only electric model on sale from Tata Motors with a range of around 140kms to a full charge. An improved version of the sedan along with other Tata Motors models will be able to run for 180-250kms on a full charge.

“We have plans in three companies – Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals and Tata Power – as far as EV is concerned. If there is more investment required, then Tata Sons will also get in. We have to see what needs to be done,” Chandrasekaran said.

Tata Motors is looking at the EV segment as the next big thing. Our plan in EV is to go strong on it. We don’t want to do a little bit here and there. This is an area where we have to definitely play big. If there is an opportunity we want to be an important player,” he added.

Tigor, which is priced at Rs 10 Lakhs, has been joint winner of the 10,000 units Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) order with Mahindra’s e-Verito.

The government’s nudge for EVs with the FAME II scheme, 5% GST Rate, income tax benefits and no registration fees for personal use EVs is seen as directly benefitting the EV buyer. In addition, lower tax on EV components and chargers is also seen a benefit for manufacturers.

With Hyundai Kona and other EVs to be launched soon, automakers now are now looking at signs of impact post these policy moves in the showrooms.