New Delhi: Auto major Tata Motors on Tuesday said it has a strong pipeline of new launches for the passenger car business and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), and feels quite confident to have a strong FY24. The company is targeting to launch four electric vehicles (EVs) by the first quarter of next year.
“We will launch the upgraded version of Nexon anytime soon. Then we will launch the Harrier in the later part of this year, then Punch EV, and then the new product Curvv EV sometime towards the first quarter of next year,” Natrajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Motors said, while addressing the shareholders at the company’s 78th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday.
“JLR will take orders for all electric Range Rover and Range Rover Sport later this year. And then we will be launching towards the end of next year or in early 2025 a series of Jaguar EVs,” he added.
While the EV penetration grows, internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are not going to go away in a hurry, Chandrasekaran noted.
Currently, the automaker garners a share of over 80% in the electric passenger vehicle (PV) industry in India, with three models — Nexon, Tigor, Tiago.
The company earlier shared that by 2030, Tata Motors India will have 50% EVs. By the end of this decade, it is also targeting to have 63% of JLR vehicles running on green technology.
The Chairman said that the automaker is extremely well positioned “to not only continue to capture growth but gain market share.”
When asked about the company’s plan to bring a 4×4 ‘Jeep-like vehicle’, he said that Tata Motors passenger cars continues to evaluate all the different spaces that it wants to be present in. “While we have many options, we consider all and then make a decision to launch products in the appropriate segment. So, this is also getting evaluated.”
“But whenever we launch, it will not be a me-too product, it will be a product with a differentiation,” he added, while hinting at the possibility of a new vehicle to compete with the likes of Mahindra Thar and Maruti Jimny.
Talking about the vehicle scrapping centers, he said the company will operationalise a total of 10 registered facilities in the next 12 to 24 months. In February this year, the auto major opened its first scrapping facility Re.Wi.Re in Jaipur, followed by another one in Bhubaneswar in July.
According to him, EV waste disposal is an important business area and new opportunities will will emerge around this space. “From a thought leadership level, we are definitely engaged in this.”
Working on hydrogen trucks, no plan for hybrids
Tata Motors, which has a partnership with Cummins to produce hydrogen powered ICEs, did not specify a launch timeline for hydrogen powered trucks. It said, “You will see us being totally ready to launch long distance heavy trucks with the hydrogen technology at an appropriate time.”
“Currently, there is no plan for hybrids and we are focused on EVs,” Chandrasekaran stated. It may be noted that Japanese OEMs including Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Kirloskar are betting big on hybrid vehicles in the country as a bridge to transition from ICE vehicles to EVs.
In January this year, ETAuto reported how the auto major is working on a twin strategy to move towards carbon neutrality.
About vehicle technologies, he said, “We are into autonomous cars and we will operate at the maximum level that is practically feasible in India. We will slowly migrate from Level-2 to Level-3 and so on. But in India, driverless cars are not going to be a reality for a long time to come.”
