Continuing its EV march, Tata Motors are all set to move to the second generation in its EV progression which will see new electric brands too.
With the launch of the Tiago EV, Tata Motors says it has now completed phase-1 of its three-step electrification journey, and thus, the Tiago EV will be the last generation-1 EV from the firm.
Speaking to Autocar India at the launch, Shailesh Chandra, managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles division, said, “Our strategy has been to evolve with electrification, so at the start with the low market size, we have ICE conversions to profitability deliver products at lower volumes, this is what gen-1 products are, and this would be the last generation-1 product, and now, we enter generation-2.”
In Tata parlance, gen-1 refers to quick conversions of the company’s existing platforms and fitting battery packs as quickly and cost effectively as possible. For example, the Tiago EV features a custom split-battery pack nestled into the fuel tank space and boot floor, thus also leaving no space for the spare tyre. On the other hand, generation-2, as Chandra put it, is all about “taking regular ICE architecture but extensively modifying it to create orthogonal spaces for a bigger battery pack.” So expect things like a flat floor in gen-2, while generation-3 would ultimately be the born-electric vehicles.
While Chandra did not elaborate what the next gen-2 product will be, he did go so far to say “some of them would be from the current nameplates but some of them would be new, we have shown as an example – Concept Curvv.”
He also added that there would be four generation-2 products, thus it’s very likely we will see the Altroz, Punch, Sierra and the Curvv being the four EVs, which is in line with our earlier reports.