Tata Motors to launch 10 EVs by 2025, ‘lead change’ on carbon footprint

Tata Motors, the mobility firm of Tata group, will aggressively push its presence in electric vehicles, launching ten new battery-electric vehicles across its commercial passenger vehicle businesses in India, by 2025, Chairman, N Chandrasekaran said.

This comes at a time when the government is pushing manufacturers to develop manufacture electric vehicles (EV) to reduce carbon footprint, have brought out policies to subsidise buyers opting for electric vehicles.

In the FY22 budget, the government announced lowering of Goods Service Tax on EVs to 5 per cent from 12 per cent previously offered income tax incentives given to individuals who purchase EVs.

Tata Motors, which has the largest share of India’s electric car market, will also invest in lithium cell manufacturing in India Europe to establish a proper supply chain for its zero-emission vehicles in the coming decade.

“In India, electric vehicle (EV) penetration in our portfolio has now doubled to 2 per cent this year we expect penetration to increase exponentially in the coming years. Tata Motors will lead this change in the Indian market. By 2025, Tata Motors will have 10 new BEV vehicles,” Chandrasekaran said, addressing shareholders for FY21.

The company is the largest EV player in the country with two fully electric models–Nexon EV Tigor EV–in the market. The electric version of the Altroz is expected to be launched in the coming months. The Nexon EV is India’s best-selling electric passenger vehicle with sales of more than 4,000 units since its launch in January 2020.

Development of an electric vehicle ecosystem from manufacturing to battery plant to after-sales service requires collaboration from a diverse set of businesses that have expertise in various parts of the EV value chain. Tata group has been one of the early identifiers of this challenge have marshalled the expertise of group companies into building it.

At the launch of Nexon- the company’s first electric vehicle, Chandrasekaran announced that seven Tata group companies- Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Croma, Tata Auto Components, Tata Motors Finance will work together to give a push to build a complete ecosystem for electric vehicles.

For example, while Tata Chemicals will do cell level research development in lithium ion chemistry, Tata AutoComp will work in battery assembly modules along with battery management system (BMS). “We are coming out with one such ecosystem — Tata Universe, where our group companies have worked hard over the last 18 months to provide the entire gamut of services under the EV platform,” Chanrasekaran had said.

Earlier this year, the company’s British subsidiary, Jaguar LRover announced that six out of every 10 LRover models will go electric by 2030 as it ditches the combustion engine in favour of the zero-emission technology as part of its ‘Reimagine’ strategy. According to the plan, crafted by JLR’s newly-appointed chief executive officer, Thierre Bollore, the company will invest about 2.5 billion pounds ($3.5 billion) a year into electrification related technologies.

Tata Motors’ peers in the Indian industry have varied in their strategy towards cleaner mobility. While largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki is pinning its hope on CNG vehicles, Mumbai-based Mahindra & Mahindra has already reorganised set up a separate structure for the EV business.

Analysts said that higher fuel prices government’s subsidy push will act as supporting factors for stronger adoption of EVs over 2020-2023, leading to an average annual growth rate of 26 per cent.

“We believe the focus on EV promotion in the Union Budget will improve longer-term outlook for EV sales but will continue to fall way short of the country’s goal of electrifying all new vehicles sold by 2032,” Fitch Solutions said in a recent report.

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information commentary on developments that are of interest to you have wider political economic implications for the country the world. Your encouragement constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed updated with credible news, authoritative views incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.

As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better more relevant content. We believe in free, fair credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.

Support quality journalism subscribe to Business Standard.

Digital Editor