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Tata Motors on Wednesday said it remains confident about the long-term prospects of the electric vehicle segment and termed the fall in sales numbers a "short-term" issue.
In an interaction with PTI at the launch of the company's first mid-sized electric SUV, Curvv.ev, at a starting price of Rs 17.49 lakh (with 45 kWh battery) Shailesh Chandra, managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicle and Tata Passenger Electric, said that the company is looking to achieve one-lakh electric vehicle sales this financial year.
Curvv EV is the second car based on the advanced Pure EV architecture - acti.ev, which marks Tata Motors' entry into the highly competitive mid-size SUV segment and will be competing with the likes of MG ZS EV, Hyundai Creta and Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, among others.
Tata Motors' passenger electric portfolio now comprises Tiago EV, Tigor RV, Punch EV, Nexon and Curvv EV. Moreover, EV sales account for 12 per cent of the company's total sales.
The latest offering comes with a certified long-driving range of 585 km on a single charge for 55kWh and 502 km for 45kWh, the company said.
Along with this launch, Tata Motors also showcased its multiple powertrain offerings with the Tata Curvv in two petrol engines and one diesel engine option and announced the launch of ATLAS 'An Adaptive Tech forward Lifestyle Architecture made for its vehicles with combustion engines.
"EV industry is a part of the larger PV trend that we are seeing of overall demand stress, which I would say is of temporary nature," Chandra told PTI.
The good thing is that inquiries and bookings are holding well, he said.
There was a very high base effect of the first quarter also, he said and added that "therefore there's a larger industry trend also impacting (the sales) but primarily EV has come down because of the fleet segment.
"So, I don't see an issue from a mid-to-long term as far as EVs are concerned," Chandra said.
The passenger electric vehicle sales for Tata Motors and other OEMs have been on a declining trend for the last four months.
According to automobile dealers' body FADA, passenger electric vehicle sales in July dipped 2.92 per cent year-on-year to 7,541 units from 7,768 units in the same month last year, with market leader Tata Motors seeing a 12 per cent decline at 4,775 units as against 5,471 passenger electric cars retailed in July 2023.
He said that the personal segment is absolutely stable in demand but the fleet segment came down completely in the first quarter because of the pre-buying in the March quarter due to the discontinuation of the FAME-11 scheme, which is 20 per cent of our total sale.
"That was the whole reason and there is a high-base effect of last year," he added.
Chandra said that the barriers which existed two years back when the EVs were growing at 100-200 per cent, were much higher as compared to now from a charging, price or range anxiety perspective.
Today there are 15,000-16,000 EV charges on the highways as compared to a few hundred that were there earlier, Chandra said.
"So why there should be any concern," he said.
The residual barriers are price parity from an acquisition price perspective with ICE (internal combustion engine) counterpart, the charging time that is needed, the range anxiety and along with that the charging infra, he said.
Curvv EV takes care of all these residual barriers, he said.
"So I believe that it's a short-term issue and we should not bother too much about (the declining sales nos).
"The long-term trend has to be EV and therefore one should be very confident and focused on that," he said while referring to a 12 per cent year-on-year decline in EV sales in July 2024.
Chandra said that the regulations are also being framed in a manner that promotes the EV industry.
He said that the company still wants to aspire to do 1-lakh units (in EV sales), adding that, there are new launches that are going to come, festive season is going to come. So we still want to hold those numbers.
He said that hopefully the FAME-III incentives should also be able to accommodate and continue what was in the earlier version of the scheme in terms of the category of vehicles.
These are the tailwinds that Tata Motors see in the coming months, which will also see the festive season along with the new launches he said expressing hope that the FAME-III will also be extended to the fleet segment.