Swaraj Baggonkar Moneycontrol News
Tata Motors may follow its peers and jump on the electric vehicle bandwagon next year, as the clamour for green mobility grows.
The company has already developed an electric version of its existing range including the Tiago and Tigor but stopped short of going ahead with a full-scale commercial launch because of the limited charging infrastructure in the country.
The electric version of Tiago, Tata Motors' top-selling model, was set to debut in 2017 but was put on the backburner.
A senior Tata Motors official hinted at the possible launch of a fully electric vehicle in 2020.
“You might see us launching an electric vehicle in 2020. We are not committing to it at the moment,” Guenter Butschek, Managing director, Tata Motors told Moneycontrol on the sidelines of the launch of premium sports utility vehicle Harrier in Mumbai on January 23.
Tata Motors rival and car market leader Maruti Suzuki has already announced its first electric vehicle launch in 2020. Maruti’s parent Suzuki Motor Corporation and Toyota are jointly working on the e-car with a focus on keeping the cost to the consumer as low as possible.
India’s second largest car maker Hyundai will launch an imported electric SUV in a few months.
Mahindra and Mahindra the pioneer in the electric vehicle space has also promised to launch the electric version of the KUV 100 this year and an electric version of the XUV 300 in 2020.
Tata Motors' reluctance to launch an e-car stems from the fact that the charging infrastructure remains grossly underdeveloped in India giving rise to issues such as range anxiety.
Tata Motors showcased at the Auto Expo in Greater Noida last year the electric Tiago is powered by an 85-kilowatt motor that makes 200nm of peak torque. The car can accelerate from 0-100kmph in 11 seconds and has a top speed of 135kmph. It has a range of 100 km.
Tata Motors has switched to a two-product architecture model from the earlier six-platform model. While the architectures are flexible to provide the company to spin off 12-14 products they are also capable of hosting hybrid and fully electric powertrains.
Harrier is the first of the several products from the architecture – Omega and Alfa – while the second product on this will debut in about six months codenamed 45X, a premium hatchback.
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