TATA Motors EVCo : A new EV Company by Tata Motors | Mr. Shailesh Chandra

This week, Abhishek Uchil, the host of PluginIndia podcast spoke in detail with Mr. Shailesh Chandra from Tata Motors about the new subsidiary company and their plans.

Tata Motors along with TPG Rise Climate, a San Francisco based investment group, which invests in sustainable companies, announced that they will invest Rs 7500 CR or $1 Billion in a new subsidiary of Tata Motors for electric mobility business. This unnamed new company will use all the capabilities of Tata Motors and at the same time channel future investments into dedicated Battery Electric Vehicle platforms, charging infrastructure and battery technologies. Over the next 5 years, this company will create a portfolio of 10 EVs.

Visit their website

Listen to the Podcast

---

Questions

• We just want to congratulate the entire Tata Motors team on this huge news for the Indian EV industry. The EV community is stunned. One Billion Dollar or Rs 7500 Cr investment is a lot of money in the EV space. We have not seen such figures and commitment towards electric cars from any Indian car maker. Moreover Tata Motors is also looking at acquiring another billion $ as part of the next round of investments. In the near term, what will this money be spent on? Which areas will the company focus on?
• So “Tata Motors EVCo” - will this be a new brand for EV’s and will we expect an announcement on this soon?
• So “Tata Motors EVCo” will be created as an asset-light new subsidiary of Tata Motors. There is a lot of chatter in the EV Community about this asset lite model. Some people we spoke to say this is a positive development as Tata Motors already has invested in creating assembly lines for Nexon ICE, Tigor ICE or the Altroz ICE so there is no need to have unnecessary capital expenditure. We spoke to others, who don’t like this dependency on the parent company. Paying an ICE car company at the cost of EV’s does not seem right. The new EV company must have its own manufacturing facility to have more control on processes dedicated to EVs. This seems to be a flaw, and won’t be sustainable in the long term. So there are two points of views here and I feel both views have valid points, but we would love to listen to your thoughts on why this strategy was adopted for the new EV company.
• Let’s be honest here. The EV Community would rather see more sales of EV’s than pollution causing ICE cars. More EV’s on our roads will benefit India. We want to know how independent will this new company be? Will it have autonomy in making decisions that are best for the EV ecosystem, without any consideration for the ICE vehicle business? Ultimately this new company should not be hindered in any way by the ICE vehicle management. Can Tata Motors guarantee this to the community?
• Let’s talk about Lithium cells. Companies like VW and Tesla are setting up large factories to make cells. Will Tata Motors look at setting up “Giga factories” to manufacture cells in India at a large scale that can drive down costs of battery packs that go into the cars? Tell us about Tata Motor’s plans for Lithium cell manufacturing.
• Globally we have observed that large car companies around the world like Volkswagen, BYD among others have created modern high platforms for electric cars that can support long ranges and super high speed fast charging. So do tell us about Tata Motor’s plans. Will the Ziptron platform be upgraded for the long term or we can expect a new platform from Tata Motors.
• One trend we are observing globally is vertical integration. Any electric car company that can make their own power electronics, battery cells, semiconductor chips etc will have a huge advantage compared to other car OEM’s. What are your thoughts for vertical integration and how that will benefit Tata Motors?
• So 10 cars by 2025, you already have 2 electric cars. So that tells me that we can expect one or two EV models every year from now upto 2025. What can the EV community expect from Tata Motors in terms of models. For example, will we see affordable small electric cars?
• Community Questions

---