Tata’s electric appeal:
To meet the strigent european emission norms, Tata Motors chooses an easy way to re-enter european market. In October 2007 Tata Motors confirmed that it is looking launch its products again in european market. Already, we reported you tata motors is working on electric variants of ace and indica(known to Europeans as the City Rover) which would be called as Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) for european and United States of america. Today (on november 21st) Tata Motors confirmed it by saying “We are working on converting Indica into an electric platform for the European market”. Worldwide automakers are facing the heat enviromentalist for polluting the atmosphere. Most of the developed countries particularly United states of america and european have already proposed strigent emission norms from 2008(american automakers have filed a suit against norms in california). At the same time these countries are offering rebates for electric and hybrid vehicles. In United Kingdom, all Electric vehicles are exempt from road tax and the daily London Congestion Charge of £8 (Rs 648), which is worth over £2,000 (Rs 1,62,000) per annum.
Indica electric in europe:
Electric vehicle market is big in europe and Tata’s wishes to capture a significant share in the segment. Tata Yazaki Autocomp Limited, a division of Tata Auto Comp Systems Ltd (TACO) has been working on electric and hybrid technologies for past many years. Tata Yazaki is already supplier of hybrid fuel technology to global majors like Ford. Tata is currently testing the Indica hybrid. The hybrid indica would have the facility to turn off the engine when it is not needed such as when the car is stopped at signals, and turned on again. Besides the Indica Hybrid, Tata Motors is also working with a US-based company on electrification of its most popular light commercial vehicle, ‘Ace’, and hybrid buses for city transport.
Reva’s territory:
Already an indian manufacturer called ‘REVA’ has been exploiting these rebates and sells decent number of cars every year. Reva introduced its electric car G-Wiz in 2004, in 2007 alone it will sell around 3000 units. Increasing awarenss about the pollution and raising fuel cost has pushed customers to choose electric cars. Infact Reva is very optimistic about its sales in 2008, it expects the sales to raise by 10 fold times i.e. 30000 reva’s in United Kingdom. Reva’s G-Wiz comes at a price of 7299 pounds(around Rs6 lakh).
About City Rover:
Tata Motors launched its indica under the name city rover in alliance with MG Rover in 2003 in europe. The city rover was launched at a price band of £6,500-8,500. Quality issues, inappropriate pricing and differences with the local partner cost the Tata badly. Tata motors discontinued the city rover in 2005. But after the corus acquisition Tata’s brand has become popular in europe. Tata Motors is a leading bidder in Ford’s jaguar and Land Rover sales. Now tata motors plans to relaunch its product range in europe.
Indica hybrid for india:
While Honda is serious about the launch of its civic hybrid in india and Toyota plans to bring the prius hybrid to India. Homegrown Tata Motors confirmed that it would launch a hybrid indica in india in 2008. Tata Motors will launch a ‘mild hybrid’(no pure-electric driving mode) of Indica in 2008. The company said that electricity-run Indica would not suit the Indian scenario as the domestic market is yet to mature