Tata Motors explores partnerships for electric mobility biz; likely to launch new electric car in two year's time

Mumbai: Home-grown auto Tata Motors is exploring partnerships and business models to deliver mobility as a service in the electric mobility business, a top company official said on Monday. The company, which had bagged a tender from Energy Efficient Services (EESL) for the supply of 10,000 electric vehicles (EVs), has been working collaboratively on various electric and hybrid vehicle solutions in the commercial vehicle segment along with a dedicated EV platform for passengers vehicles. “We are also exploring good partnership and business models to deliver mobility. Tata Motors is not only looking at developing and selling electric vehicles, but seeing how we can centralise the approach with lot of partners to deliver a whole eco-system solution in the focused markets and micro-markets,” said Shailesh Chandra, president, electric mobility business and corporate strategy, Tata Motors. [caption id=“attachment_4336827” align=“alignleft” width=“300”]  Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] He said Tata Motors is discussing with different other companies who have expertise in different spaces, where it can create bilateral win-win opportunities. For charging infrastructure the discussions are going on with Tata Power while for component localisation Tata Autocomp Systems and Tata Chemicals while Tata Reality and Infrastructure for the operations platform and TCS for software and apps, among others, he said. “We are seeing how each of these company leverage from this opportunity which is gong to come,” he added. Chandra said that the company is expected to launch a completely new electric car in the next two years which will not be based on any existing model. The new vehicle will be showcased at the forthcoming Motor Show in Geneva, he added. Chandra said that technically a 200-250 kms a day electric car is possible in the the country, however with the increase (in the optima), the price also go up. “Today the optima is 140-150 kms for a mid-size cars - as you go two years down the line, with the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of hybrid and Electric vehicles)incentives, 200-250 kms will be really useful,” he added. He said that Tata Motors has completed the delivery of first phase, which is 250 cars, to EESLl, adding that “right now we are in the phase 2 of delivering 4,800 cars.