India may see 1 million EVs being sold in the next five years: Tata Motors Executive – EQ Mag
In India, only 47,102 EVs were sold by companies in FY23, indicating a 1.3 per cent penetration in the PV market: FADA
Auto industry’s four-wheeler electric vehicle (EV) sales could rise by 10 times in India to cross the 1 million unit-mark in the next five years due to strong demand, continued government support, deeper penetration of charging infrastructure, and launch of wide range of products by multiple automobile makers, said Shailesh Chandra, managing director of passenger vehicle (PV) and EV division of Tata Motors (TaMo) on Friday.
He said that multiple car companies have launched EVs during the last six months but TaMo — which had about 83 per cent share in the Indian EV market in the 2022-23 financial year (FY23) — will continue to focus on its volumes.
“The market share of Tata Motors has to fall down because you can’t be at 83 per cent. It is not healthy for the consumers. That way it is good (for consumers to have so many EV launches). Our focus would be on our volume growth and our faster launches in the market,” he told reporters.
In India, only 47,102 EVs were sold by companies in FY23, indicating a 1.3 per cent penetration in the PV market, according to Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations of India (FADA). This EV penetration was just 0.6 per cent in FY22.
“Five years back, the industry had sold about 2,000 EVs. And we are already talking about an annual sale of about 100,000 EVs (industry sales in FY24). It is 50 times growth. In the next five years, why shouldn’t it grow 10 times to 1 million? That is what I would say,” Chandra pointed out.
“Therefore, as the charging infrastructure has been increasing and more choices are coming for the customers — these are going to be the biggest enablers. We are seeing not just Tata Motors participating in this journey. There will be many more players in the next five years as compared to the last five years,” he added.
Is Tesla — which may price an EV in India at Rs. 24-25 lakh — a threat to you? He replied, “I would not like to react to any specific name because any competition is not to be seen as a threat but as a reality. This is the reality in which one has to compete and therefore, the focus will be that we are agile to what the competition is doing and how I can deliver a differentiated and better value proposition to the customer. That is the approach that we would have for anyone.”
Chandra said that if the battery prices soften, the company would focus on adding more features instead of decreasing the prices of its EVs. TaMo sells popular EV brands such as Tiago, Tigor and Nexon. The company this month crossed the milestone of selling 100,000 EVs in India.
“Why would you go below the price of the ICE-vehicle? This (EV) is clearly giving the value proposition to the customer because the maintenance cost and operating cost is low,” he pointed out.
“Would the price come down for the model that has a lower range? I would rather use the opportunity to get new features. You will start seeing this in some of the models that are coming,” he added.
“The customer will always be having that comfort of spending that extra money on EV. Why would I not use that extra money to give more features, make it more aspirational, enhance the range, etc? That is going to be the strategy going forward,” he said.
