Two years ago, talking about electric vehicles in India was like talking about a future that is at least a decade down the lane. Fast forward, EVs in India are all the hype, with the homegrown auto giant Tata owning 90% of the market share.
Back in 2020, when people were least interested in EVs, the nascent industry was tough to crack. Yet — with its automobile household name — Tata Motors Limited (NYSE:TTM) was able to woo the customers. And no, the first-ever Tata Nexon was not made in Tata's fancy setup or took a huge amount of money, but rather it was made in an unused shop with limited investment.
According to a Reuters report, Tata Group repurposed an unused shop floor to produce the first EV for the consumer market with no fancy assembly line. Here at the frugal DIY innovation studio, they fitted the Nexon SUV gasoline model bodies with battery packs by hand to make Tata Nexon EV.
Shorting down on the investment, the auto giant further slashed its upfront investment by relying on Tata group companies for a range of EV components and infrastructure.
Anand Kulkarni, vice president of product line and operations at Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, told Reuters that an EV plant for a nascent market would have been "a huge amount of investment sitting on the potential of emerging volumes. We didn't want to do that."
Just its initial plant — which can also be dubbed "the DIY plant" — was able to produce eight SUVs a day. However, down the lane, the demand has shot up. And in March alone, Tata sold 3,357 units of EVs — the highest ever by the carmaker at a staggering growth rate of 377%.
Tatas Have Fierce Competition Ahead
The steep rise in the number since the inception of EVs in India has done a thing for sure — provided a guarantee to foreign EV companies that were looking to penetrate what is one of the world's largest automobile markets.
From Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), Fisker Inc (NYSE:FSR) and Suzuki Motor’s (OTC:SZKMY) JV Maruti Suzuki to South Korea's Hyundai Motor (OTC:HYMTF)– there's a slew of companies trying to enter the market.
While Tata has further outlined aggressive plans to launch 10 electric models by March 2026 and quadruple its EV production to 80,000 cars alone in this financial year — it is set to face fierce competition in the coming days.
Gaurav Vangaal, associate director at S&P Global Mobility, told Reuters that "the major threat will come when competitors like Hyundai launch EV models in a similar price band and as Toyota and Suzuki's hybrid cars come into the market."
