TVS Motor invests Rs 250 crore in its newly launched EV TVS X, to focus on global market expansion

TVS Motor, which holds more than 20% market share in India's electric vehicle (EV) sector, has launched a new electric two-wheeler vehicle, TVS X with a total capital expenditure (capex) of Rs 250 crore.

"This vehicle is designed in a unique way that is path-breaking and will attract Gen Zs and Millenials... We have totally put together a Capex of Rs 250 crores, " Said Sudarshan Venu, Managing Director of TVS Motors told Moneycontrol on the sidelines of the launch event held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday.

This comes at a time when TVS Motor Company has also shelved plans to raise funds for its electric mobility business amid an uncertain sectoral environment.

On June 8, 2022, Moneycontrol was the first to report that the South-based 2-wheeler major had kick-started a process to induct private equity investors and raise around $300 mn to $350 mn to facilitate capacity expansion and new launches for its EV arm, TVS Electric Mobility.

TVS wants to be a complete EV ecosystem player.

Venu said in a media briefing that the company plans to be present in all the segments within the EV ecosystem including more models within the three-wheelers segment as well as models for the Business-to-Business (B2B) sectors like scooters for e-commerce and food deliveries.

"We will be the company that will have the complete offering within the EV ecosystem and address the customer's needs," He added.

Venu believes that both ICE and EVs will coexist and grow and TVS motors will continue to invest in both, even as Ola Electric, India's largest EV market share holder, is running a campaign on Ending ICEage which is ending the petrol-dependent Internal Combustion Engine vehicles.

"I think it is not a topic of ICE vs. EV, it is ICE and EVs and we will grow in both segments. We will in fact continue to invest in ICE vehicles as well. There is huge growth in electric and more than 20% of scooters we sell today are EVs and this number will double in the next two years." Venu said.

Newly Launched TVS X

The company has launched TVS X which comes under the premium EV scooter category. The new TVS X is priced at Rs 2.49 lakhs and is available for bookings as of Thursday and deliveries across 15 cities will start from Nov 2023 in a phase-wise manner.

The company calls it a crossover model that has features resembling a scooter and has the design of a motorbike.

The new model can go from 0 to 40 Kilometers per hour (kmph) in 2.6 seconds and has a sustained max speed of 105 kmph. TVS X comes with a connected tech with its 10.2-inch TFT cluster display powered by the next-gen TVS SmartXonnect platform.

Sudarshan Venu, MD, TVS Motor Company with the newly launched TVS X

The display can be adjusted to be used for watching videos on wellness or for gaming, live video streaming, and internet browsing. However this feature works only when the bike is in 0 kmph, the company said during the launch event.

The company's close peer, Ola Electric, on August 15th announced a slew of launches including newer versions of its Ola S1 Scooters called Ola S1 X and Ola S1X+.

While its previous versions Ola S1 Pro and Ola S1 Air range between Rs 1,20,000 - Rs 1,40,000, the new Ola S1X plus is pegged at Rs 1,09,999 and deliveries will start from September. Ola S1X is pegged at Rs 99,999. Reservation starts on August 15, and deliveries begin in December.

Another EV player Ather is looking to double its market share to about 30-40 percent over the next few years with the launch of its affordable 450S scooter in the 125cc category.

TVS Motors entered the electric two-wheeler scooter segment with the launch of iQube in 2020, and had a 2 percent market share at the beginning of 2020 to around 20 percent at present.

The sales of the TVS iQube electric scooter have crossed the 1.5 lakh unit mark as of 2023, priced from Rs 1.23 lakh to Rs 1.38 lakh, on-road Delhi, the iQube rivals the Ather 450X, Bajaj Chetak, etc.

Vision for India and global markets

While the initial launch will be for the Indian market TVS will be exporting globally.

"This product is India-first and we will look at exporting to other countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, and even Europe," Venu said, addressing the media.

Currently, the firm will produce around 100 TVX vehicles per day and is looking to expand its capacity in a phased manner for producing its first model iQube.

“We are gaining market share in a very healthy manner and we will be gaining more with the new launch our focus areas include ramping up our production of iQube to 25,000 to 30,000 vehicles per month and we are also seeing good traction in the international markets,” Veniu said.

(This correspondent was in the United Arab Emirates at the invitation of TVS Motors)