Tata Motors is betting big on electric mobility, with plans to unveil electric versions of the popular SUV Harrier with all-wheel drive functionalities, and a redux of the Sierra, whose production version was displayed at this year’s Auto Expo. While these two cars will be ‘launched commercially in the coming couple of years’, Vivek B. Srivatsa, Head, Marketing, Sales and Services Strategy, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility,sees electric vehicle technologies better suited for SUVs than diesel engines, and expects EVs to gain faster traction in tier-2, tier-3 cities than internal combustion engine four-wheelers have had. Excerpts:
Rivals like Hyundai are finding more takers for diesel engines in larger SUVs? Could shifting customer mindsets towards EVs in this category pose a challenge?
Not at all. Diesel engines were indeed the preferred fuel option for larger SUVs because of the kind of torque they offer. The low-end torque performance is very good which suits SUV performance… But if anything, EVs are even more suited for SUVs, because you have all the torque available at low speed. And we are developing an all-wheel drive version of the Harrier with the ideal kind of a powertrain for SUVs. The larger wheelbase of SUVs allows us to package larger battery sizes, so it actually becomes a win-win for the customer - you have a longer range because of the larger battery size and the ability to go all wheel drive and the fantastic low-end torque available with EVs. Obviously, Harrier EV will be one of the first electric mainstream SUVs in the market and we feel customers are going to be delighted by its performance. Electric will be the ideal replacement for diesel SUVs.
The EV phenomenon is still largely an urban phenomenon. What is the plan to get into the hinterland markets?
If you look at the four-wheeler car market, it started with the larger cities and rapidly penetrated into smaller towns. In EVs, we are confident this penetration into smaller towns and geographies will happen much faster. There are a couple of reasons for that. Smaller town India is already used to electric vehicles in the form of two-wheelers. A lot of them are very comfortable using EVs, in terms of their range, and are familiar with the operational cost benefits, lower maintenance issues and ease of operation. So we don’t need to do that education about driving EVs in the smaller towns. With accessible products like Tiago, and to some extent, better charging infrastructure, we will see a dramatically fast penetration into the smaller towns. One important thing we should realize is that most EV users meet over 95% of their charging needs at home. And that is easier in smaller towns than larger towns, because you have several individual homes without parking space constraints. Hence, with a mindset of readiness towards adopting EVs in place, it’s only a question of very little time before we see rapid penetration in the smaller towns. The penetration of EVs in the smaller towns will happen much faster than what we have seen with ICE four wheelers in the past.
Your entry level EVs have done well, but is competition heating up?
With over 50,000 happy EV customers, we will continue to act like a leader. We already have three EV products and have unveiled three more at the expo. To reach that level of product breadth will take some time so that will differentiate us and allow us to be a dominant player, both in mindshare of customers as well as market share in the future. On a product to product level also, we will maintain superiority on key areas like technology, real world range, safety and design.
What is the kind of policy framework that could help EVs’ adoption?
The subsidies that both the Central and State governments have been giving are always good to spark off demand, but we know these are not sustainable measures.
We are fully prepared with the mindset that these are not sustainable but a temporary policy support from the government. The long-term wish list would be better charging infrastructure, both from the government and private players. A rapid shift to green energy is something that the government is also prioritising in its overall larger commitments made at global fora like COP26. But a focus on converting power generation to green energy would help because a lot of people still feel that electric vehicles only transfer the pollution from the tailpipe to power generation. So, greenification of power generation will help overall in electric vehicle adoption. Policies like Production linked incentive (PLI) schemes are very helpful and stringent implementation as well as monitoring of who is actually following the PLI norms very strictly and implementing will help serious manufacturers like us a lot.
