Tata Motors may not have any EVs on sale for the public but have been strategizing the integration of their Electrically powered Tigor incrementally, through various other channels. The first one, as part of the government tender for 10,000 Indian Made Electric Cars are still being delivered to government agencies. Word on the grapevine suggests that Tata is targetting corporate entities as part of their fleet to begin the induction of electric cars. Now the home-grown auto giant has announced another tie-up with self-drive rental car firm Zoomcar to offer the electric version of its compact sedan Tigor in Pune city as part of the shared mobility plans. Under this partnership, Zoomcar expects to deploy 500 electric vehicles in over 20 cities with Tata Motors over the next one year, a release said.
Speaking on the tie-up Shailesh Chandra, president for electric mobility business and corporate strategy, Tata Motors along with Greg Moran, co-founder and chief executive, Zoomcar flagged-off the first batch of 10 Tigor EVs from Concorde Motors in the city said. “Tata Tigor EV will now be available on the self-drive rental platform, offered by Zoomcar, to enable zero-emission transport option for the Pine citizens,” Chandra said.
Tata Motors is committed to the government’s vision of driving electric mobility in the country and is working in a collaborative manner with various ecosystem partners to facilitate faster adoption of electric vehicles, the release added.”This marks the beginning of a dynamic partnership within electric mobility and we expect to touch 20 cities and 500 electric vehicles with Tata over the next year,” Moran said.
This makes sense because the consumer in India, electric cars are still too expensive to own. The lack of eco-system could also explain why Tata is hesitant to officially launch the Tigor in India. However, the Tigor EV can be purchased by larger institutions where they make financial sense since EVs fundamentally require less maintenance and have low running costs. This gives Tata Motors a place to sell their EVs and achieve Economies of Scale, which can then be passed down to the customer at a later stage.
