Tata Motors’ steep growth in the passenger vehicle segment in the month of August is indicative of the traction that its new products have received since their launch early this year. What is also significant is also how a single product from its stables, the Tata Nexon EV, currently accounts for 60 percent of sales in its segment.
Shailesh Chandra, in his first conversation after taking over as president of the passenger vehicle business unit, speaks about the company’s EV strategy and how it is coping with disruptions the COVID crisis has brought.
Chandra says the Nexon EV has proven to be the most promising one out of all personal segment cars. “In the entire industry of about 5 cars or so, Nexon EV itself is 60 percent of the sale as to date.”
Going forward, the company has a very robust plan for launching more products. “We have already announced that we would be going Altroz EV and we will let you know at the right time and date for the launch,” said Chandra.
Speaking about the impact on fleet buying, he said, “Given that fleet segments are not able to pick up… The whole issue of work from home and also because of the mobility services… Companies are not utilising their fleet, there is hardly any demand and therefore utilisation of FAME II incentives.”
Talking about the penetration of EV, he said, “As the battery prices are going to come down and the competitiveness of electric vehicles further improves and the ecosystem also develops around it, this adoption can be driven significantly higher.”