The Indian automobile market is facing a grim situation. How will Tata BEV cope with the challenges?

The Indian automobile market is not doing well this year. In August, domestic new car sales in India fell 33.2% year-on-year to 248,400 units. All major manufacturers have seen declines, with Tata having the largest drop, down 48.4% to 32,300 units. Tata is actually facing a very serious situation.

Sales volume of major Indian manufacturers in August

If we pull out this year's data, it went from less than -10% in Q1 to -20% in Q2, and it seems that it may dive further to -50% in Q3.

Tata's sales this year

Tata has no better solution to this situation. It has launched the electric vehicle technology brand "Ziptron". This high-voltage platform will become the basis of Tata's future electric models and will be used for the BEV models (Altroz ​​and Nexon) to be launched in early 2020.

This low-mileage car built on 72V low voltage has average sales, with 163 units sold in one quarter.

The features of this system are very interesting:

300V high voltage system

Supports a range of 250km (under Indian conditions)

60-minute "fast" charging

8-year warranty on battery and powertrain

The battery system is liquid cooled

Note: India's charging facilities are even more sluggish. Tata Motors and Tata Power have built 85 charging stations in 13 cities in nine states in India. By the end of 2020, 300 fast charging stations will be built in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad, India, with power increased from 15kW to 30-50kW.

From this perspective, it looks like several large modules.

Tata Chemicals announced a partnership with CSIR to invest in the production of lithium-ion batteries . It plans to build a battery cell production facility worth US$580 million in the Dholera Industrial Zone in Gujarat (126 acres of land has been acquired). In the first phase, a production capacity of 1.7GWh will be established with an investment of 750-1000 crore rupees, which will be expanded to 10GWh based on increased demand.

Tata Group, the parent company of Tata Motors, has pledged an investment of ₹4,000 crore to build a lithium-ion battery plant in Gujarat -- in the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR), to be precise. In fact, an ET report states the group has already secured a 126 acre parcel of land in the area.

Judging from Tata’s plans in India, as India’s automobile industry development enters a bottleneck period, the Indian version of the electric vehicle stimulus plan has gradually been launched, attracting the attention of several companies such as Mahindra, Tata and Hyundai.

Summary: So far, the Indian government's electric vehicle initiatives have been recognized by domestic and foreign automakers, but the entire electric vehicle market is still in its infancy. India's auto market has been affected by the economic cycle, but it is indeed moving towards electric vehicles.