NEW DELHI: Homegrown auto major Tata Motors is planning to set up a distinct retail network for its electric passenger vehicles (EVs) in the current financial year as it wants to offer a specialised experience to customers opting for the green models.
“We need to separate outlets because there would not be enough space to keep both EVs, ICE models at the same place...So there’s a practical difficulty... we will not be able to do justice to both. So you will start seeing exclusive outlets starting slowly from the coming quarters,” said Shailesh Chandra, managing director, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility.
Besides having a separate retail outlet, Tata Motors is also exploring the idea of exporting its electric vehicles to foreign markets. At present, Tata Motors dominates India’s electric car market with a segment share of about 80%.
Tata Motors currently has a pan-India presence for its internal combustion engine (ICE) passenger vehicles through which it also sells retail EVs. Chandra said the rollout of new EV outlets would be in small and big cities, depending on its current network of dealerships.
“We’ll start with pilot cities. I can’t disclose the locations right now. But as I said within this financial year, we’ll start with some experiment,” he stated. Tata Motors’ current EV portfolio comprises the flagship SUV Nexon EV range, Tiago EV, Tigor EV and the XPRES-T EV. The company aims to have 10 EV models in its line-up in the next 2-3 years.
Tata Motors on Thursday launched the facelift of Nexon EV. The new Nexon.ev is priced between `14.74-19.94 lakh (ex-showroom). It comes with a maximum range of 465 km in a single charge and has a host of new features such as vehicle-to-vehicle charging and vehicle-to-load technology which allows the vehicle to act like a power ban.
Tata also launched the updated Nexon with petrol and diesel engines. The ICE models come at introductory prices starting from Rs 8.09 lakh (ex-showroom). Chandra said the demand for EVs is witnessing an upward trend and for Tata Motors, the EV range accounts for 13-15% of the company’s overall sales. “Revenue wise it will be 18-20% as of quarter one. Next three to four years I would imagine this to go up to 25%,” he added.