Half of all Tata Motors EVs sold are in rural, small town markets

At a recently held internal event, Tata Motors shared interesting data about EVs, centred around their ownership and usage patterns. The data was drawn from the over 1 lakh EVs that the company has already sold, and thus, the findings are based on a suitably large sample size. Considering the fact that Tata Motors' EV market share hovers above the 70 percent mark, the findings are pretty much representative of the current electric vehicle market.

23 percent of first-time car buyers opt for EVs

According to the company, 23 percent of its EV owners are actually first-time car buyers. This is surprising and impressive given that there still exists some apprehension around electric vehicle ownership. “Seeing this is very heartening. With so many EV owners being first-time car buyers, it means fears and doubts around EV ownership are quickly disappearing,” said Tata Passenger Electric Mobility MD Shailesh Chandra. Interestingly, 75 percent of EV owners said that they use it as their primary car.

50 percent EV sales from rural areas

Another surprising tidbit is that 50 percent of Tata Motors’ EV sales come from outside the top 20 cities. Tata Motors says that while these owners do share grievances of a sparse charging network, poor quality of electricity (low voltage) and power cuts, they all rely on home charging, which is typically overnight and alleviates these challenges. Tata Motors’ data shows that on the whole, 93 percent of its EV owners charge at home or in their office with the time of charging between 6-11pm.

Thanks to its large electric fleet, Tata Motors says that it now has 1.4 billion kilometres of EV usage data like driving and charging patterns, typical long distance routes used, charging points frequented and so on. The company is using this data to further refine and tune its products.

Women EV buyers are twice the industry average

Of all the EVs Tata Motors has sold, 24 percent have been purchased by women buyers, which, according to the company, is twice the industry average for female buyers. “What’s nice is that women buyers are clearly seeing the benefits of EVs and are readily embracing this new technology,” said Chandra.

EVs have higher monthly running

Data from the on-board connectivity suite shows that, on average, EVs are driven for 26 days a month, a significant 23 percent higher than ICE vehicles. The monthly average running works out to 1,400km, which is 10 percent more than that of an ICE vehicle.