Battery cost, not engineering capability defining EV development speed: Tata Motors

Tata Motors recently celebrated its achievement of selling 1 lakh EVs, the highest so far for any automaker in our market. The Indian auto giant grabbed the lead in the EV race with its three-stage EV development plan comprising of quick development of ICE to EV conversions, followed by EVs based on heavily modified ICE platforms, and finally, its born electric vehicles.

1. Nexon, Tiago, Tigor EVs come under stage 1 
2. Stage 2 and 3 EVs will be expenisve to develop 

Speaking to Autocar India at the milestone celebration, Shailesh Chandra, managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Division said that the phased development time for its born EVs is not due to engineering challenges but cost considerations. “From an engineering point of view, we could already have a stage 3 (born EV), but developing that platform is very expensive. So if you have expensive batteries on top of that, your EV’s value equation goes completely off”.

Chandra explained that if the cost of doing a quick ICE to EV conversion is Rs x, a stage 2 (flat floor) would cost three to four times that, while a stage 3 would increase it tenfold. Thus, with this exponential cost increase, the company feels that it's better off developing a stage 3 EV when battery costs come down and Chandra pointed out that this is happening faster than expected. “You could see the stage 3 EVs coming very soon.”

The Nexon, Tiago and Tigor EVs are all examples of Tata Motors' stage 1 EVs, the upcoming Curvv and Harrier EV are stage 2, and the Avinya-based vehicle is a stage 3 EV.