Tata Motors Eyes Lion’s Share In Expanding EV Market

Tata Motors Eyes Lion's Share In Expanding EV Market

Indian Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tata Motors is now optimistic to remain a dominant player in the expanding Indian EV market. The top management of the firm in its latest investors’ call said that a boom in the domestic EV market would expedite the growth of the firm too and not affect it adversely.

“The (EV) market is definitely going to benefit from an industry growth perspective. As far as Tata Motors is concerned, I think the biggest advantage that we have, which is not fully unleashed because of the lack of expansion of the market, is the widest portfolio, as Dhiman was mentioning, from Rs. 8 lakh price point to Rs. 22 lakh and none of them overlapping with each other. And that’s a unique advantage and you are able to take the best advantage of that as the market expands,” Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director of TPEML (Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited).

“So, we believe that as the market expands, we will be the biggest beneficiary. Second, I believe that all the intensity of competition that you’re going to see and you would have seen that all are going to be above Rs. 18 lakh price point. So, there’s a lot of crowding going to happen in greater than Rs. 18 lakh price point, but we will have a unique advantage of cars which are priced less than Rs. 12 lakh, which are basically city cars, primarily city EVs. This is not where competition intensity is increasing and therefore, we will fully leverage this opportunity to get into even Tier 2, Tier 3 cities…” he added.

Growth of EV Portfolio

The company has delivered more than 200 buses in Q3 and have more than 3,500 buses operating. In ACE it has delivered more than 7,200 vehicles. On an Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, the firm in Q3 saw the ACE EV volumes growing upto 26%. At the latest Bharat Mobility Expo, it also showcases six battery electric vehicles which were close to commercial launch.

The company, however said that the rolling black of FAME support led to a bit of slowdoen in the offtake.

“In terms of EV offtakes, our offtakes in the personal segments remain strong with a growth of 15% on a year-on-year basis. Overall, EV offtakes growth is lower at 6%. That’s largely because of the decline that we have seen in the fleet segment once the FAME II incentives fell off in Q4 last fiscal. Despite the very strong competition that we have seen in the last few quarters, the new launches from competition, we have still been able to manage our market share at greater than 53% because of the wide portfolio that we have maintained at different price points ranging from Rs. 8 lakh to Rs. 22 lakhs,” Dhiman Gupta, Vice President of TPEML said.