Also Read: Tata Motors launches next-gen Tiago
Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, told journalists at a pre-launch briefing on Wednesday that the surge in EV interest has been dramatic and swift. “In the last 15 days, things have changed completely,” he said.
“It is an even sharper growth in interest than what I was seeing two to three weeks ago.” While EV penetration in the industry currently sits around 5.5%, Chandra said genuine demand at Tata Motors already reflects a mix of nearly one-in-three bookings for electric vehicles this month — a level that would push industry-wide penetration to 8% or higher if supply could keep pace.
The immediate trigger, Chandra said, is fuel prices. With four petrol price hikes in just 11days at the time of the briefing, he said customers in the entry and hatchback segments — already sensitive to monthly running costs — are rethinking powertrain choices rather than postponing purchases altogether.
“If there is a ₹10 increase in petrol price, a typical customer filling 100 litres a month absorbs ₹1,000 more in expense every month. That disturbs the dynamics.” He expects a clear shift toward CNG and electric, with petrol models likely to feel the most pressure in the sub-₹15 lakh category.
To capitalise on this, Tata Motors is positioning the new Tiago EV not as an aspirational indulgence but as a financial instrument. Based on usage data from 75,000 existing Tiago EV owners who have collectively driven two billion kilometres, Chandra said the median customer clocking 1,500 km a month would recover the full vehicle cost through fuel savings within four to five years.”After that point, the car starts paying you,” he said, invoking the tagline the company used at the Tiago’s launch on Thursday: Mutual funds hi nahi, Tiago EV bhi hai. Adding further heft to this ownership case is a segment-first lifetime battery warranty — a move Chandra described as “revolutionary” and the biggest missing piece in the EV ownership conversation so far.
On supply, Chandra acknowledged that the current capacity of around 9,000–10,000 units a month is already a binding constraint. Despite demand running at 2 to 2.5 times that level, he said supplier-side limitations — not in-house manufacturing — are the bottleneck. The company is targeting a 50% capacity increase within three to four months, which would take monthly output to approximately 15,000 units.
The new Tiago itself, Chandra emphasised, is not a facelift. Built on the X-Alpha platform with a revised underbody to accommodate all three powertrains — petrol, CNG, and electric — the car gets a new top hat, a redesigned interior carrying over architecture from the Nexon Alpha range, and features including a 360-degree camera and wireless charging that have until now been reserved for higher segments. The CNG variant gets twin-cylinder technology and an AMT option, directly addressing the twin complaints of boot space loss and sluggish performance that have long dogged CNG buyers.
With the hatchback segment having stabilised at roughly 21–22% of total industry volumes after years of decline, Chandra’s bet is a simple one: neglect drove the segment’s slide, and attention can reverse it.