Q] The demerger in 2025 brought a change in the corporate structure, along with a change in name. Why introduce another identity change so soon for Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles?
The corporate entity name, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, remains the same for statutory, stock market, back office and legal purposes. What we are really doing now is introducing a fresh customer-facing identity. All customer touchpoints will be called TATA.CARS. While the brand name itself was rooted in simplicity, we wanted it to be something that consumers could easily relate to. Customers don’t say, ‘I bought a car’; they say, ‘I bought a Tata car.’ In a way, they helped us decide the name. While it is as simple as it can get, it can accommodate all the future powertrains, body styles and technology that we bring in. The brand promise however required a significantly bigger and deeper thought. We are on a growth path in terms of where we are headed as an economy. The brand promise is ‘Nothing’s Too Far’. While we have crossed a few milestones, our biggest ambitions are ahead of us, like our goal to achieve 20 per cent market share in the passenger vehicles category and 30 per cent EV penetration in our portfolio by volume by FY31. Combined with the demerger, this was a good time to create an independent identity and an independent brand promise that paves the way for the future.
Q] Given the scale of the identity change, will there be an increase in marketing spends this year to make TATA.CARS familiar to consumers?
There won’t be an independent campaign for TATA.CARS around ‘Nothing’s Too Far’. We will subsume it into all of our other campaigns. We are not looking at landing this brand promise through a single campaign; instead, we are looking at living it constantly in the future.
Q] Maruti stands for familiarity, Mahindra for ruggedness. While Tata has a larger umbrella of trust, if you isolate Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, what is the emotional equity you want TATA.CARS to own?
To be honest, it is something we have to work on. Today, we are known for too many things—safety, design and robustness. With EVs, we are known for performance. Being known for too many good things is wonderful but from a pure brand perception point of view, we need to narrow down the various ideas into one solid factor/ emotional equity.
Q] Q1 FY27 saw an 80 per cent drop in net profit of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles. How do you hope to achieve the 20 per cent market share ambition and what are the other targets?
Besides these numbers, we have softer parameters and targets too. We want to firmly cement ourselves as a futuristic brand, with best in class after-sales service, where we could not catch up. We have grown rapidly in sales and market share from 2020, achieved almost a three-times growth in volume, but service is not so easy to implement. Because of the early years of COVID, we were held back, and since then we have played, catch-up on the service side. In terms of products, we will continue to provide new and innovative solutions to Indians—from the original Sierra to the Safari and the entire EV line up. We believe we have always given consumers the solutions, to problems they didn’t know existed. To a large extent, ‘Nothing’s Too Far’ is about saying there is no barrier that will hold us back, as long as we are doing what is right for the consumer and for the nation.
Q] Which cars are you betting on to take the business into the future?
We believe in what is called a multi-powertrain strategy, where each of our cars provide solutions to different kinds of users through different powertrains. We have EVs, diesel and petrol cars. A lean and mean portfolio is the way we want to approach it. That way, we can cover a wider segment of the market without too many products. We want to right-size our portfolio while covering all kinds of consumer needs.
Q] What percentage of your revenue currently comes from EVs?
Today, in terms of revenue, it is around 20 per cent already. Our ambition is to be at 30 per cent in terms of volumes within our own portfolio by FY31.
Q] Tata has played a big role in democratising EVs in India, what does the EV customer profile look like today and how many are first-time car buyers versus existing car owners switching to EVs?
First-time car buyers are increasingly growing, especially with products like the refreshed Tiago, and Punch EV which has many more first-time buyers, becoming the single car in the household. At the entry end, we have Tiago and Punch, while at the upper end, the Harrier EV is addressing this opportunity and concerns around range anxiety, charging speed, performance and capability. But a majority of EVs, around 80 per cent, have been additional cars at home.
Q] You have also introduced Battery-as-a-Service proposition. Does this make an EV more comparable in price to petrol and diesel cars?
That is the objective. But let’s be honest; essentially, it is breaking down your EMI into two. One of the biggest advantages of an EV is the lower cost of operation. You almost save 80 per cent to 90 per cent of running costs if you drive an EV. Many customers use that saving to pay for the additional cost of an EV. Battery-as-a-Service also does that. Essentially, it is a finance product that breaks down your loan, allowing you to segregate one part of the loan, which you pay off with your savings or earnings. It is designed to increase accessibility to EVs by breaking the purchase down into two financial products. And it has done the job. Battery-as-a-Service really brings people’s attention to the fact that an EV can have the same price as an ICE vehicle.
Q] With the ethanol addition to petrol, are you seeing more consumers moving towards EVs?
I don’t want to comment on the ethanol matter. But specially after the West Asia crisis, EVs have become more reliable as a source of mobility. What most people don’t realise is that in the last six months to one year, the sheer breadth of choice for EV products has gone up. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach anymore. There are consumers who say, “I want an EV but I want it to be used only within the city and take it for a long drive once a month.” On the other side, there are consumers who clock 3,000-4,000 kilometres a month and do a lot of intercity driving.
Q] How has the automotive market changed over the past two years?
I would really break it down into pre-GST 2.0 and post-GST 2.0. Pre-GST 2.0 was a phase where, after the heightened growth during the pandemic, there was a little bit of plateauing. Prices also went up. GST 2.0 really powered demand back because it brought significant price reduction in automotive prices, and we are still seeing that momentum continue. What is more encouraging is that alternate fuel options such as EVs and CNG continue to grow much faster, while diesel is seeing a strong comeback.
Q] If you had to reduce it to one thing, what is the most important ask from today’s car buyer: fuel-efficiency, design, technology or comfort?
I would say it is more comfort as most of us are spending more time on the road.
