Tata Motors rises nearly 2%, MD shares ambitious EV plans

Tata Motors' concept car Avinya is the company's first born-electric car. (Image: Tata Motors)

Tata Motors gained around 2 percent on March 3, as a senior official shared the company's electric mobility ambitions, including a tie-up with ride-hailing firm Uber.

The auto major’s stock hit a high of Rs 430.55 during the day and ended at Rs 428 on the BSE, up 1.8 percent from the previous close.

In an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18, Tata Motors passenger vehicles managing director Shailesh Chandra spoke about a tie-up with Uber, plans to expand in the fleet segment, generation-2 electric vehicle (EV) models and production capacities for EV. He was speaking on the occasion of the auto major crossing 5-million production milestone.

The auto maker’s partnership with Uber would help the ride-hailing firm add 25,000 electric cars to its fleet. “They don't buy as you know, they mostly attach the cars. So they will be working with various fleet operators who we also have a very deep relationship with... about 40-50 of such big fleet operators. And over a period of I would say 24 months to 30 months, they would be targeting to deploy these 25,000 vehicles,” Chandra said.

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Talking about the policy support for the electrification of the fleet segment, Chandra said even the government set its vision to first electrify the fleet mobility services because it helps in catering to more people who use one car and has a good impact on reducing the carbon footprint.

“We are one of the only players in this segment who is providing cars in the electric vehicle segment,” he said.

EVs have been included in fleets largely by companies to transport their employees and Chandra said Tata Motors already has a presence there, selling around 5,000 vehicles for such fleets.

The auto major has the capacity to produce 50,000 EVs a month (6,00,000 annually) across three older facilities.

The facility the company acquired from Ford in Gujarat’s Sanand adds another 3,00,000 (annually) and can be expanded to 4,20,000 units. With new capacities, Tata Motors’ total capacity (including PVs and EVs) has now come closer to 1 million units.

Also read: Tata Motors seeks over £500 million aid from UK government for setting up battery factory: Report

The company plans to launch 10 products in the EV vertical over five years—four in the so-called Feneration-1 platform, four in Generation-2 and maybe two in Generation-3 platform.

The first and the second generation platforms are adaptions of the ICE platform but the third is a purely EV.

Chandra said four Gen-1 models have already been launched ending with Tiago EV. The company will now start with Gen-2 models like the ones showcased at the recent Auto Expo.