MUMBAI, Aug 7: 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.
The company also said that it is aspiring to achieve one-lakh unit sales in EVs in the current fiscal.
Earlier, Tata Motors launched its maiden mid-sized electric SUV, Curvv.Ev, at a starting price of Rs 17.49-lakh.
EV accounts for 12 per cent of the company’s overall sales.
“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,” Tata Motors Passenger Vehicle and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Managing Director, Shailesh Chandra told PTI in an interaction.
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.
He 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 15000- 16, 000 EV charges on the highways as compared to few hundred that were there earlier, Chandra said. “So why there should be any concern,” he said.
“So I believe that it’s a short-term issue and we should not too much bother 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 given that you have the regulations that promote the that the EV industry.
Chandra 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.” (PTI)
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