From an overall perspective in terms of how the segment is moving, I think it is possible now to see that electric cars can achieve parity with ICE cars, and we have been able to do that with the Curvv . This should help us attract more buyers for EVs, Kulkarni said.
07 Aug 2024 | 3008 Views | By Ketan Thakkar, Prerna Lidhoo and Radhika Dave
The country’s largest electric vehicle maker, Tata Motors on Wednesday launched its Curvv EV at Rs 17.49 lakh, almost at the same price as the Petrol Automatic SUVs from Hyundai and Kia. This should help the company accelerate the adoption of EVs amid slowing growth, it notes.
Anand Kulkarni ...
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The country’s largest electric vehicle maker, Tata Motors on Wednesday launched its Curvv EV at Rs 17.49 lakh, almost at the same price as the Petrol Automatic SUVs from Hyundai and Kia. This should help the company accelerate the adoption of EVs amid slowing growth, it notes.
Anand Kulkarni Chief Products Officer, Head of HV Programs and Customer Service, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd, spoke to Autocar Professional on how the company was able to bring down the price and offer a compelling product in the mid-size SUV segment to carve a space for itself. Edited excerpts:
What is your take on the slowing EV penetration in the market?
We need to look at the penetration slowing down in two parts. When you look at it from a year-on-year perspective, there is always a part of fleet and a part of retail. Retail is still going strong, to the extent, that it has had a little bit of an overall effect, coming through in small-digit percentages.
However, the fleet is a little tentative due to the withdrawal of FAME subsidies and the lack of clarity in the Budget. If you ask me, there is actually a good opportunity there, but because commitment is not happening, people are hoping that FAME 3 will take place soon.
From an overall perspective in terms of how the segment is moving, I think it is possible now to see that electric cars can achieve parity with ICE cars, and we have been able to do that with the Curvv . This should help us attract more buyers for EVs.
How has that been made possible?
In January, we discussed the Born EV architecture. We did this because you cannot optimise the car for two power trains. The needs and expectations are different. When you decide to separate them, you start to unlock the benefits of each of those respective architectures or powertrains.
The second part concerns battery prices. If you look at what happened to battery prices, they were consistently reducing until Covid-19 hit us. They spiked rapidly, and again, they are coming down. The battery prices from a peak have come down by at least 35-40%, if not more.
When battery prices were very high, the non-cell cost was a fraction of it. We had said that in the future when battery costs come down, the focus will have to be on the non-battery or the non-cell cost, and that is precisely what’s happening.
So, we are learning, devising, and innovating how to construct, design, and manufacture these batteries optimally without imposing any limitations.
So, all of these things have come together, and there is also a certain degree of scale and localisation effect. This has helped us in bringing parity close to ICE vehicles.
Q: What are the levers that will help you in mainstreaming the EVs?
All our next generation of EVs, starting with Punch EV, will move to ACTI.EV architecture - our Born EV platform.
It is a completely different investment. The Born EV's flat floor helps us optimise the range.
It allows us to switch to cell format agnostic, chemistry agnostic batteries, which then enables us to pick up larger cells and pack them in the same space, increasing efficiency. This helps to get 55 kilowatt-hours of energy into the battery pack and address the critical element of range anxiety.
Cell cost reduction is another factor. The engineering optimisations happening on non-cell costs, the platform-related costs, the carryover content that we can leverage from our ICE components and ICE platforms, and the scale benefits are driving down costs.
So we have been able to offer the Curvv at a price parity of a petrol vehicle, with higher range, thereby addressing the anxieties of price and range.
It is a complete package of style, features, capabilities, and aspirational quotient delivered with range and cost that will be a compelling proposition for prospective buyers switch (to this product).
Is there further headroom with local sourcing of cell with Agratas coming on board in 2026?
Whenever the cells come in from Agratas, there will be some benefit, but it will not be a game-changing one. There will be benefits in terms of further optimising electronic components and packaging, but they will be more incremental in nature, rather than a radical change in cost.
Given the crash in battery prices globally, is it cheaper to import than localise?
From an industry perspective, the scale in China is' amazing' for the kind of volumes that we are looking at today. So, for us (as a country) to get those benefits today is not practical. However, if you don’t start now, you will forever think that it is better to import from elsewhere. So you have to make a beginning somewhere; otherwise, how do you bring capabilities and competence?
Is it a Catch 22 situation? On one hand, you can import at lower prices and address the higher cost. On the other hand, from a long-term perspective, reducing import dependency, especially from China, will be critical.
Look at it this way. (If one keeps importing) ten years down the line, we will be sitting here and debating that India never came true to its promise of capability and competence. There has to be a balance. What is that balance? There is no formula. Sourcing has to move locally.
For many years, we did not know how to make cars as a country. We all made cars outside. But today, we are one of the largest car producers in the world.
Do you feel infrastructure is an issue at this point?
Infrastructure is something that we still need to improve. We can enable certain things that we have done, for example, the CPOs and the common app, where everyone comes together on a single device through the IRA app. They improve the efficiency of utilisation. At any given point in time, knowing availability is equally important. That is one thing we are looking at.
Q. From a non-cell cost perspective what is the further headroom to reduce cost?
When you remove the cells and look at the battery, we are at a very high level of localisation. There are some parts that you cannot do in the country today because they are all volume. For example, these high-voltage contactors—electrical connectors inside—are all heavy-duty and handle high voltages.
Typically, these include things like trays, Top lids, bus bars, ceilings, thermal pads, cooling pads, and cooling systems, as well as wiring harnesses inside. A lot of them are localised.
In your opinion, what is the contribution of cell costs in a vehicle in terms of prices?
It depends on the battery capacities being explored. In today’s cost parlance, it could be between 22- 23% and about 36-38%.