Tiago EV : Launch Day Chat with Anand Kulkarni, Tata Motors

We are going to share a little bit from the horses mouth as far as the Tiago is concerned, so so uh first question to you: anandji is 8.5 lakhs is mind blowing. Thank you. Its kind of shaken up a lot of people and its going to be a game changer as far as the EV industry, not just maybe in India but worldwide, is concerned. The question that comes to everybodys mind is how much money are you losing per car? At eight and a half lakhs, can you make money at that kind of price point with 200 per kilowatt hour so um I wouldnt, I wouldnt give you any numbers, but all that I can tell you is you know business cases in the automotive industry are a Balance of the ability to penetrate the ability to gain market share and the ability to have a proper business case yeah, you cannot stray in stray endlessly in one particular direction, otherwise, its not going to be feasible and therefore all that I can say is the entire Thing has been structured, the entire pricing has been structured in order to reflect this balance. Okay and therefore, in a way Anan. Can I see that maybe youre viewing it as a lost leader of sorts, where you know you could say: Okay, TK get people used to this concept of electric, and once that happens, we could kind of see how the market kind of shapes up – and you know Like, for example, were seeing even with the removal of subsidy, we still have seen sales not being affected yeah, so so so all that I would say, is uh.

There are ways and means to do it. The balance has to be struck right. Is it a loss, leader, kind of a situation? I dont know what a loss leader means, but I can tell you that its its not a situation where something is being done for charity. Okay, theres, definitely not this kind of a stuff, but there is a balance. Of course there has to be a balance in everything that we do so we have said two things today and we need to understand this. First of all, its an introductory price for the first 10 000 Vehicles. The second one is ah its coming from uh its coming from a reputed company. What we have seen is people in the EV space in the EV four wheeler space tend to go more towards premiumness and the availability of features. People are not wanting to say that I want to have the most accessible product. People want features, people want performance, people want range and therefore lets see. This is also a way of understanding how our customers are going to react, and it is precisely for this reason that we are going to have this three month period, which then allows us to understand the Discover and then plan, of course. So so in a way. What youre saying is that it is value and not price that matters correct, right and, and hopefully customers will do a job of figuring out what the value is right.

Uh, okay, now uh one of the other questions, thats kind of possibly good to come along. In terms of a lot of peoples, mind is that uh, you know when youre, comparing this with the tigor right and again youre looking at the price at which the tigor comes right. So do you expect that there will be an impact on the guard sales because you know youre getting giving more features than that you got right. You got cruise control here. You got levels of region. You got rain sensing vipers, which city God does not have. Why would I pay a couple of lakhs extra foreign so that that value equation comes back and I would just say, hold on for a few more days, because we might have something to share right. So, as I take on user, Ive definitely kind of be looking forward to uh things like the over there updates that you talked about uh as far as the tigor is concerned, cruise control Etc. So those of you who already have tigers, anands messages dont get disappointed. Good news coming your way lets wait and watch right, okay, um, so you know another. I drove the car for a short while and my First Reactions is its kind of hands a little bit better than the tigor. Probably I dont know is the wheelbase a bit shorter compared to uh. The wheelbase is uh a little bit shorter, so its kind of easier to turn a little bit lighter.

So I kind of but uh from the looks of it uh. One thing which I have a feeling right and Ill, probably justify it. When you have a longer Drive, is the waters per kilometer is not significantly different. Yeah the weight is also not significantly different. Youve got about 100 kg difference in weight and probably for the 24 kg pack at 24K WS pack. Even that would be lesser right and uh. Normally one would have expected that for a smaller car, but I would have probably looked at the ballpark figure about 80 90 watt hours per kilometer in real life. Okay, but I think this one will give between 90 and 100, which I get in my own tigor. As well so whats the thing why couldnt, we have had better efficiency coming out of this particular smaller car. So, ah already you are having better efficiency. Okay, the tigor is at a 26 kilowatt hour battery. This is a 24 kilowatt hour battery so that thats about uh, eight nine percent go on there. Okay, uh this, this car, the range is probably uh – three four percent here and there right the 306 versus 315. okay uh. So you you already see that you are slightly better off uh now uh. How much better do you want to get? Is a question? Can we do anything? Better answer is probably yes, but at this point of time, with the available technology that we have in hand, we think that this is a very, very well optimized, very efficient way of doing things, because one of the things that we have to also look at is Weve been through this journey right, where we have looked at the certified values, and we have said so more important is: how can you configure a vehicle that gives you better real life and not do an arms race for certified values, and my only view would be That weve actually spent more time to look at.

How do we make real life better rather than the certified values, and this in the hands of customers would be more effective and thats? How I think we should be looking at this things that any automobile manufacturer do? Is they look at Weight Management? Yes, right and and one of the questions that I have in mind and on this, could we have cut down another 50 60 kilos somewhere or is it something which comes with the baggage of using existing ice car and then just electrifying it? What was that? No, I wouldnt, I wouldnt uh. Take it that way, uh to the question whether is it possible for you to reduce further uh. The question has to be answered in the in the perspective of what are you willing to give away with it? What kind of safety do you want to have is ideal, and what kind of safety are you willing to stay with? Weve made a choice? Weve made a choice that our cars will be the safest. Our cars will be secure in terms of any exigencies and thats. A choice thats ours. Now: how do we optimize it from an overall perspective? Is our challenge correct and therefore could we have done uh lighter? I I think, if you use some exotic materials, it is possible to go right yeah, but then you see that the value equation starts to change and therefore you need to you need to make this entire connection of being able to give the right use case.

Features being able to optimize it in terms of performance being able to give it also at a right price point, so all of these things have to be looked into collectively, you know so so, somewhere down the line, one gets the feeling Anand that maybe, if you Were doing a grounds up EV, a lot of these things could probably get built into the design. You know where, for example, if you have an under floor pack correct, then the uh crushed zones, for example, which could probably be much more important with the current design, need not get worried about so so so. The next question, then, is key uh. You know youve been talking about introducing with 10 models by 2025 here in 2022, almost towards the end, only three come up so far. So can we see something coming up in 2023 grounds up, uh grounds up depends on what you call grounds, because if you, if you look at a platform that is designed specifically for a EV, would you call that a grounds up, yep yeah? So then things are different than how you you would talk about in terms of a skateboard, for example right and therefore there is a certain time. Weve already spoken, yes about gen, 1 Gen, 2 and gen 3.. So I would think this is the last program out of the Gen one uh Gen 2 programs are yet to start, so we will be able to share something more with you as we go on in the future, and then, of course, we we are already aware Of distressing news, you may say, the punch TV is not coming because thats also gen 1.

I dont know what you are saying by the way, by the way, just for a small correction. But this is the fourth product, because you have uh yeah. You have a expressd trigger, you have an X1 and then the ziptron trigger and now the as a front, Diego okay. So you know couple of questions now: release right, uh. Now this is the first time we are getting to a sub 10 lakh territory seriously. It is and a lot of people who were sitting on the fences and like our transportation Minister, has also been talking about that. You know we need more affordable cars and I think that has done that now. You know when one bottleneck goes away. You have others that come in place and and a lot of people now who are on the fence saying I wanted this car here. It is at sub 10 lakhs, but wheres the charging, because I park on the roadside right. So, in a way now that you want to get to the next level – and this is a car which, like we said at the start – is kind of a game – changer and – and I easily see this doing – maybe 10 000 – maybe 20 000 real rival to maruti Suzuki, if you want to call it, but what happens with the constraint of charging, because you know, is there some thinking on? Ah, what Tata Motors or Tata power or the Tatai you know, group together, can do to take care of this problem because urban areas, which are going to be primary consumers of this particular model correct a lot of people are sparking scarves right and you cant have Plug points in roadside charging yeah, so so any thoughts on or for these people who are Sitting On the Border, saying yeah give me a charging solution, also, and I kind of love to buy this car so uh.

I think a couple of things that we are trying to do one is with Tata power. We are also uh sort of approaching uh societies, yeah or residential welfare associations, as you call them rwas and we are wherever they are eager to or willing to set the charges up. We have already set up charges, so weve already got 200 societies up and running between three cities: Pune Mumbai and Delhi. Yes, ah, I do not see any reason why the same model could not be expanded or rolled out into further cities. Many times what we have seen is: ah, there is lack of awareness with the societies about how this will work, etc, and sometimes societies also feel that what are they going to get in return, correct yeah, so they want a revenue sharing model or something of this Sort, whereas it should be seen as a facility that is being extended to residents of of that Society itself and therefore, if people in your group or your viewers today are able to discuss it with their societies and say boss. If we want to have this, what can we do about it? Data power and Tata Motors are more than happy to help out and we would want to expand this and roll this out as as much more as possible and that, I think, would be the true uh true capacity iteration of the entire EV network. Yeah and you know to some extent another my view is that Frugal, its kind of cost effective and all you need is kind of once a week.

Charging kind of thing, so 150 ampere Point can probably support seven cups. You know and thats what India wants. We dont need a 10 lakh Rupees, fast charger and apple. I want to tell you, I mean Ive, been speaking to you guys uh earlier also, but now I have a Nexon Max with me. Yes and uh. Believe me in in the last one and a half months that Ive owned the car, I have used it for each and every of my Pune Mumbai trip. Okay, absolutely and I am charging only on a 15 amp plug fantastic only on and it works. Yes, it absolutely has no problems and I dont get stranded. Neither do I find that on the day that I want to use my car, my car is half charged, so the convenience and the Brilliance of that 15 amp cannot be lost out. Absolutely absolutely in fact, coming on to charging. Maybe we could also spend a little bit of time on the 7.2 kilowatt versus the 3.3, which is your first impossible and which is why, which is why it was important for us to give a solution of the 7.2. Also on this car, okay, because, for example, the converts are many uh, you guys have been leading the entire thing and therefore it is possible that families now have only electric cars. Both cars in the family are electric cars with a 7.2 charger. It becomes so Jiffy. Yeah, absolutely okay and it it takes three phase or is it a single phase kind of a connection that is required, so it can also work on a single phase.

You can also yeah and there is a choice of whether you want a 3.2 or 7.2 okay. Okay, fair enough right, so I think uh, fantastic uh. It was a great experience talking to you and honestly, I think a lot of people now you know, like you, said the next three months are very important for you and for us as an EV community and uh, for those of you, whove been thinking for a Long time that that you know I must look at buying an EV, maybe they should get affordable and – and you know, maybe I will wait a little bit more and prices will come down. Uh. Of course, Anand is not saying that, but I am saying this. I dont think theyre going to come any down further battery prices are actually going up worldwide, right, possibly again without quoting Anna right. I think this is being subsidized already by the company. Forget the government right. So this is the time right and we must all thank Anand and the team at Tata Motors to make that happen. Anand. I am sure you have a success story. Thank you right, and I am sure that the next one Heritage is going to be more than matched with the Tiago. We look forward to more news from you and all the best for. Thank you very much its been a pleasure. Thank you.