Tata Motors seems eager to take up the baton from Mahindra and Mahindra in the electric car segment in India. The company, which is pursuing a tender to supply 10,000 electric vehicles to the government, might also, be mulling the inclusion of Tigor Electric to meet the demand.
According to a report of ET Auto, Tata will make the electric version of its compact sedan —Tigor — at the company's Sanand plant. The Sanand plant of Tata, which has an annual capacity of producing 2.5 lakh units, currently rolls out the hatchback Tiago, entry-level Nano and Tigor.
Tata procured the tender for the electric vehicles beating all the other bidders including Mahindra and Nissan; the company is expected to fulfil the order in two phases.
The first phase with 500 EVs in November 2017 and 9,500 electric vehicles in the second phase. The tender from Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a venture set up by the Ministry of Power to facilitate implementation of energy efficiency projects, is said to be the world's largest single electric vehicle procurement. Tata Motors quoted the lowest price of Rs 10.16 lakh exclusive of GST in the competitive bidding.
Tata currently does not have any electric vehicle in its portfolio. However, its wholly-owned UK-based subsidiary — Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC), had recently showcased Tiago EV concept.
Tiago EV utilises a liquid cooled 85 KW drive motor that develops 200Nm of torque driving front wheels through a single speed gearbox. The concept car attains 0-100 kmph speed in less than 11 seconds and has a top speed of 135 kmph. Tata is also said to have plans to bring out the electric version of Nano.
