Speaking to shareholders at the 74th annual general meeting, Tata Motors Chairman N Chandrasekaran said, "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."
The Tigor is currently the only electric model on sale by Tata Motors with a mileage 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, added Chandrasekaran.
"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.
"In February, we put a plan in motion. But we want to calibrate our plans much higher in light of the recent announcements by the government. 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.
Some weeks ago, the Mumbai-based carmaker opened sales of the electric Tigor to the non-government buyers too with the commencement of sales to 10 fleets across five cities. The electric Tigor, which was the joint winner of the 10,000 units Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) order, is priced at nearly Rs 10 lakh.
"Tiago is selling well at around 8,000-9,000 in a month. We need something bigger than that which can get us 10,000 a month volume. We need 2-3 nameplates of high volume whether it comes from EV or IC engine cars it does not matter," he said.
The Centre has nudged the EV buyer and the EV manufacturer to adopt electric mobility in a bigger way by providing incentives. Income tax benefits, reduction of GST on EV and no registration fees of the EV will directly benefit the EV buyer. In addition, tax on EV components and chargers will benefit the manufacturers.
"This budget the incentives announced both on the production and demand side has been quite good so we have to see how to translate this into sales," he pointed out.
Hyundai recently announced it has taken bookings of 120 units of the Kona, a full-electric SUV in just 10 days of the launch. This model is priced at Rs 25 lakh. The Korean brand is working on a sub-Rs 10 lakh model specifically built for India. Mahindra & Mahindra will shortly launch the electric version of the KUV100.
