Tata Motors Confident Of Availing PLI Aid For Its EV Models 

Indian automotive giant Tata Motors seems confident to avail the benefits under the Production Linked Incentives (PLI) of the Indian government for all of its Electric Vehicle (EV) models. The firm’s top management expressed optimism on the issue with the specific changes in the scheme’s parameters and the auto firm’s preparedness. 

The issue was recently discussed in an analyst call. During the call, Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director of Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, talked about the tremendous growth of EVs during FY23. He also said that with more engagement of the firm with the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) and some flexibility, the company might get the desired hand-holding support from the government to ramp up the manufacturing of its EVs. 

“…the requirement from the MHI to establish the extent of DVA (Domestic Value Addition) that any OEM has attained was a bit stringent, which has been brought to a level which is now practical. And we are going to be working on that. And hopefully, the first model is what we are going to submit with the DVA status very soon. From there on, we’ll probably secure the PLI eligibility for all our models. Most of the models we are selling today, as per our estimates, cross DVA requirements, and going forward, we are very confident of availing the PLI benefit.” Chandra said. 

Chandra said FY23 was a fruitful year for the EV sector, with the industry reporting the highest ever of 3.9 million EV sales. The last highest sales of 3.4 million was reported in FY19. Tata Motors in India continue to have the lion’s share in EV sales, with its largest selling of popular EV models-Tiago and Nexon. In addition, it is all set to launch Range Rover EV model next year, and talks are ripe on the launch of the Jaguar EV in the next few years. 

PB Balaji, Group CEO of Tata Motors Limited, claimed that on the registration market share of EVs, Tata Motors have an 84 percent market share with a network of 165 cities, 250 dealers, and a charging infrastructure increase of up to 5,300. However, the company claimed that the recent reduction of pent-up demand and price increase because of the RDE (Real Driving Emissions) transition might affect the business this year. 

Girish Wagh, Executive Director, Tata Motors, however, claimed that with more clarity on FAME, resolve of supply chain constraints could allow the company to scale up its EV supplies of ACE-EV and electric buses. He also opined that with better clarity on payment securities, Tata Motors would again bid under CESL to supply electric buses. 

“We did stay away from the second tender of CESL because we had requested a payment security mechanism to the government and the government agencies, which didn’t get implemented in tender two, and therefore we stayed away. A third tender was also released by CESL, in which only one player bid, other – all other players didn’t bid because this payment security mechanism wasn’t there. And therefore, that tender will be re-bid. And we will continue to engage with the government to craft the payment security mechanism, which will make the whole model bankable. Once that is done, I think we will be very much into this game,” Girish added.